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U N I O N 



WITH 



OUR LORD JESUS CHIRST. 



U NION 



Our Lord Jesus Christ 




REV. FR. JOHN BAPTIST SAINT -JURE, 
Of the Society of Jesus. 

Translation Revised by a Father of the sa?ne Society. 



Paradisum habemux multo meliorem et longe delectahiliorem guam primi parentes 
hnhuerunt, et pwadisus noster Christus Dominus est. — St. Bernard, Serm. I., in 
Xativ. Doni. 

we a paradise much better and more delightful than our first par- 
- paradise is our Lord Jesus Christ. 



4R 

NEW YORK : . - J v 

: J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. 
Montreal : No. 275 Notre-Dame Street. 
1876. 






op CfiweiuMg 

WAS HINGTON 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S76. by 

D. & J. SADLIEIt & CO., 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Stereotyped by VINCENT DILL, 

2j and 27 New Chambers St., N. Y. 



APPROBATION. 








PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION. 



The Rev. Fr. John Baptist Saint-Jure, 
author of the book we present to the public, 
is too renowned for his learning and holiness 
of life to need any eulogium from us. The 
greater number of the works that gave him 
so distinguished a rank among the grand 
ascetic writers of the seventeenth century, 
are still in the hands of pious persons ; and 
for more than two hundred years "The Know- 
ledge and Love of Our Lord Jesus Christ" 
" The Book of the Elect ; or, Jesus Crucified" 
" The Master ; or, Jesus Teaching Men" have 
not ceased to produce in the Church most 
abundant fruits of sanctity. 

It is therefore with reason that we are sur- 
prised to see forgotten during this long period, 
one of the most excellent of the works of this 
apostolic man. The " Union with our Lord 



viii Preface to the French Edition. 

Jesus Christ in His Principal Mysteries " is 
in our day almost entirely unknown. The 
Catalogue of Writers of the Society of Jesus 
has not even given its title, and it seems to 
have escaped the researches of those editors 
who for some years past have been so zealous 
in reproducing the other works of the same 
author. 

The edition that we now reprint in English 
appeared but a few months after the death 
of Father Saint-Jure. Unlike the preceding 
editions, it bears his name, and it contains 
some new matter on the union of the soul 
with our Lord by charity. It is, as it were, a 
spiritual testament of the holy man wherein 
he seems anxious to declare for a last time, 
that admirable doctrine on the love of Jesus 
Christ which during his long career he never 
wearied of teaching. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



This short work of Father Saint-Jure 
which we present to the public is peculiar 
in its character. It is a book suggestive of 
matter for reflection and meditation rather 
than one intended for mere spiritual reading. 
Consequently it appears suited particularly 
to persons who are trying earnestly to ad- 
vance in the practice and acquisition of the 
Christian virtues and the imitation of our 
Lord. To such persons we humbly recom- 
mend it, begging their prayers for 

The Translator. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface to the French Edition vii 

Translator's Preface ix 

CHAPTER I. 

On the Mysteries of Our Lord Jesus Christ 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Jesus Christ is the Spiritual Air that we ought Constantly to 

to Breathe 38 

CHAPTER III. 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ for the Season 

of Advent 55 

CHAPTER IV. 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ from Christ- 
mas to Lent 87 

CHAPTER V. 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ for the Season 

of Lent 138 



xii Contents, 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ from Easter 

to the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament 300 

CHAPTER VII. 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Mystery 
of the Eucharist from the Feast of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment to the Month of August 343 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ for the Month 

of August, by the Virtue of Faith 395 

CHAPTER IX. 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ for the Month 

of September, by the Virtue of Hope 408 

CHAPTER X. 

Practice of Union with Our Lord Jesus Christ for the Months 
of October and November until Advent, by the Virtue 
of Charity 42 1 



UNION 



OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 



CHAPTER I. 



OX THE MYSTERIES OF OUR LORD JESUS 
CHRIST. 

Our. predestination and salvation depend 
absolutely on our union with our Lord Jesus 
Christ, since, as the Prince of the Apostles 
tells us, there is no salvation out of Jesus 
Christ, and God has given to men under hea- 
ven or in the whole universe no other name by 
which they can be saved. " Neither is there 
salvation in any other. For there is no other 
name under heaven given to men, whereby we 
must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.) And our Lord, 
speaking of himself, assures us that everything 
in heaven or on earth is subject to his power, 
and that God, his Father, has placed all things 
at his disposal. " All power is given to me in 

2 



14 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

heaven and on earth." (Matt, xxviii. 18.) 
" The Father has given him all things into his 
hands." (John xiii. 3.) We must from this 
draw two important conclusions which we 
ought never to forget, but rather should recall 
each moment of our lives, and should, as it 
were, write everywhere in large characters, 
even with the golden rays of the sun, if this 
were possible. These conclusions are that we 
have a continual and inexplicable need of 
Jesus Christ for all that concerns our salvation, 
and that, consequently, we should exert all 
our efforts to unite ourselves intimately and 
inseparably with him. 

Now this union is formed, practiced, and ren- 
dered perfect by sanctifying grace ; by acts of 
the virtues, in particular of the virtues of Faith, 
Hope, and Charity; by the worthy reception 
of the sacred body of Jesus Christ in the 
Blessed Sacrament, which, for this reason, is 
called Communion ; by desires, by petitions, 
but chiefly by imitation of our Lord, which 
produces his likeness in us. 

Inasmuch as it is in this likeness that the 
entire secret of our predestination and salva- 
tion consists, so he who bears it will infallibly 
be predestined and saved. The nearer we 
approach our Lord, the more we resemble 



Mystei'ies of Our Lord. 15 

him, the more signs of predestination and sal- 
vation, the greater number of tokens of eter- 
nal happiness we shall possess. "Whom he 
foreknew," says the celebrated passage of St. 
Paul, "he also predestinated to be made 
conformable to the image of his Son : that 
he might be the first-born amongst many 
brethren." (Rom. viii. 29.) 

" Behold," says St. Chrysostom, " the height 
of glory to which God raises thee, making thee 
by grace what his only Son is by nature, and 
calling thee from dust and ashes to the honor 
of being his brother. But to bring this to pass 
thou must resemble him ; because those for 
whom God has from all eternity stored up 
special favors and whom he has looked upon 
with particular kindness, he has predestined to 
be one day like to his son in heaven, provided 
they be like him here on earth. 

For this reason the Holy Spirit, speaking by 
the prophet Aggeus, gives to the Son of God 
a very significative and remarkable name, 
calling him the seal which the Father uses to 
mark his elect. " I will make thee as a signet, 
for I have chosen thee." (Agg. ii. 24.) Our 
Lord is the seal with which God signs all the 
predestinate ; he impresses it upon them, and 
they must all be marked with it, for it alone 



1 6 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

confirms them in their high estate and in their 
sovereign glory. 

Thus St. Paul, writing to the faithful of the 
church of Ephesus, tells them that they are 
marked with Jesus Christ and bear his like- 
ness. "In Christ you were signed." (Ephes. 
i. 13.) And St. John saw twelve thousand of 
every tribe of the children of Israel who were 
marked in the same manner. "There were 
twelve thousand signed." (Apoc. vii. 5.) He 
says that on the contrary the reprobate bear 
the mark of the beast, that is of Antichrist or 
the devil, and that it is engraved and stamped 
upon them. 

It is, then, this mark and likeness which 
makes us adopted children of God, and assures 
our salvation. The noblest of God's designs, 
and the greatest work that he performs in 
heaven or on earth, is to form and represent 
his Son Jesus Christ in us. 

The first and most sublime production of 
God the Father is the production of his Word 
in himself by eternal generation ; the second 
is the production of his Word incarnate out of 
himself, in the most pure womb of the ever 
Blessed Virgin by the incarnation ; and the 
third is the production of it in us by justifica- 
tion. The production of the Word in the 



Mysteries of Our Lord. ij 

bosom of the Father is the glory of the Father ; 
the production of the Word incarnate in the 
womb of the Virgin is the glory of his Mother ; 
and the production of Jesus Christ in us is our 
glory, our salvation, and the most perfect dis- 
position in which we can be to procure great 
honor to God. Therefore God, anxious for 
his honor and our salvation, ardently desires 
this representation of Jesus Christ in us, and 
acts continually in a thousand manners to 
produce it. 

■ The Father, moreover, desires it, because, 
knowing that his Son humbled and annihilated 
himself for his glory, he wills that as a recom- 
pense he be exalted, and be made as it were, 
to exist in a glorious manner in us and in all 
things ; for as he loves him solely he wishes to 
behold him everywhere, and to have no other 
object on which to look with complacency. 
The Son also desires it, so that his sufferings 
may not be in vain, and his designs may not 
remain unaccomplished ; the Holy Ghost, de- 
sires it, he who, having formed our Lord Jesus 
Christ in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, is 
constantly occupied, by means of the lights, 
inspirations, and assistance he gives in forming 
him morally in us, so that we may manifest 
him to the whole universe, expressed and 



1 8 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

represented in our interior, our exterior, and 
all our actions. 

Again, the Church, our mother, exerts all 
her efforts for no other object than to perfect 
in us the image of Jesus Christ, and to make 
-us like unto him ; and when she sees that we 
do not resemble him, she says, with St. Paul : 
"My little children, of whom I am in labor 
again until Christ be formed in you," (Gal. iv. 
19,) who formerly bore gloriously the image 
of Jesus Christ, your Father and my Spouse, 
and who were very like to him in the purity 
of your lives, now that the irregularity of your 
conduct has effaced from your souls the features 
of that divine likeness, I am constrained to 
conceive and bring you forth anew to Jesus 
Christ, to retrace his features in you until you 
resemble him perfectly. Behold whither all the 
designs of God and of the Church tend, to 
making us like Jesus Christ — and behold also 
what should be the object of all our own 
intentions and efforts. 

To accomplish this object we should, as it 
were, bind and unite ourselves to his mysteries, 
because his mysteries are his principal actions, 
and, what is more, they are nothing else but 
himself; for the incarnation, the nativity, the 
passion, the death, and the resurrection of our 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 19 

Lord, are our Lord incarnate,' newly born, 
suffering, dying, and risen. Hence to bind 
and unite ourselves -to his mysteries is to bind 
and unite ourselves to him, and by that bind- 
ing and that union to put on his likeness. 

Our Lord desires to continue and fulfill in 
us, as in his members whom he would sanctify 
and save, all those mysteries which are the 
sources of our sanctification and salvation. 
Thus he desires to express and consummate 
in us his incarnation, his birth, his passion, his 
death, his resurrection and ascension, becoming 
in a certain manner again incarnate in us, 
being born in our souls, and enabling us to 
reproduce the characteristics of these mysteries 
and to practice the virtues he practiced in 
them. So what St. Paul says, namely, that 
he filled up those things that were wanting to 
the sufferings of Christ, in his flesh (Coloss. i. 
24) in a general way, must also be understood 
of Christ's incarnation, his nativity, and all his 
other mysteries ; it is necessary for us, if we 
would be saved, to fill up what is wanting in 
these mysteries, not in our Lord, in whom 
they were accomplished to the last degree, 
and who on his part did all that was requisite, 
but in us, who as his members and images are 



20 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

bound to reproduce them according to our 
capacity. 

Hence we must unite ourselves most care- 
fully to all our Lord's mysteries, yet the 
greater part of Christians fail to do this. This 
neglect causes St. Bernard to say : " There 
are Christians to whom Jesus Christ is not yet 
born ; there are others for whom he has not 
yet suffered ; others for whom he has never 
risen ; and others still for whom he has not 
ascended to heaven." (Serm. 4, de Resurr.) 
And then the saint gives the reason : it is 
because these Christians have not united them- 
selves to these mysteries, have not been 
assimilated to them, and have not reproduced 
the virtues our Lord practiced in them. 

In order not to incur this reproach, which 
would not only bring us confusion, but would 
entail upon us a great loss, we should enter 
into the mysteries of our Lord, considering 
that they are the sources of our supernatural 
life, and the fountains of living waters of which 
Isaiah said : " You shall draw waters with joy 
out of the Saviour's fountains." (Is. xii. 3.) 
You shall joyfully draw the salutary waters of 
grace from the fountains of the Saviour ; that 
is, from his mysteries, so that we may repeat 
with St. Paul : "We all, beholding the glory 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 21 

of the Lord with open face, are transformed 
into the same image from glory to glory, as by 
the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. iii. 18.) We, 
who are true Christians, consider the glory of 
our Lord, that is to say his mysteries, not 
timidly, nor with shame at the lowliness and 
meanness that appear on the exterior of some 
of them, but with a steady countenance and 
a resolute eye, deeming them all glorious, and 
so much the more so in proportion as they are 
more covered with infamy and dishonor for 
our salvation. We present ourselves before 
these divine mysteries as before clear and 
bright mirrors, and their rays fall upon us, 
transforming us into their likeness ; thus, 
moved and impelled by the Holy Ghost, we 
go on from light to light — I mean from mystery 
to mystery — from our Lord's incarnation to his 
nativity, then to his circumcision, and so on to 
his other mysteries, in order to draw from each 
new traits of resemblance to Jesus Christ him- 
self in our soul and body and in our whole 
being. 

Xow, it must be remarked that each of our 
Lord's mysteries is composed of two parts : 
the first is the body and exterior of the 
mystery, the second is its interior and spirit. 
The body and exterior is all in the mystery 



22 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

that appeals to the senses : as in the nativity, 
the poverty, contempt, nakedness, cold, the 
manger, etc.; in the passion, the scourges, the 
thorns, the nails, the insults ; in the resurrec- 
tion, the coming forth from the tomb completely 
victorious over death, the brightness, beauty, 
agility, subtilty, and immortality of his sacred 
body ; and the same with regard to the other 
mysteries. 

The spirit and interior of the mystery is 
what passed in our Lord's soul while he 
accomplished^ it; first, the thoughts of his 
understanding with regard to God his Father, 
his holy Mother, his elect, all men, and every 
soul in particular ; secondly, the affections of 
his will ; thirdly, the intentions and designs 
he had in accomplishing the mystery, both for 
the glory of his Father and for our salvation ; 
fourthly, the virtues he practiced in it, the 
humility, poverty, obedience, and the like; 
and finally, the grace he merited for us by 
those thoughts, affections, intentions and 
virtues, to have in a certain proportion the 
same thoughts, affections, and intentions, and 
to practice the same virtues in the same 
mystery, which is properly to enter into the 
spirit and assume the features and coloring of 
the mystery. For we are bound to believe 



Mystei'ies of Our Lord. 23 

that as our Lord is the Saviour and pattern of 
men, he has merited for them by his operations 
in each of his mysteries, the assistance neces- 
sary to enable them to imitate those opera- 
tions, and consequently to resemble him, and 
by that resemblance to make certain their 
predestination and eternal salvation. 

It must be understood, moreover, that each 
mystery has its own spirit and character, that 
each is filled with a special grace and produces 
a particular impression, and that our Lord had 
in each different intentions for the glory of his 
Father and our sanctification, and thus different 
modes of preparing us for our beatitude. Just 
as the material sun produces different effects 
as he moves along his course and accomplishes 
his annual revolution, so when the Sun of 
Justice, our Lord, is in the mystery of his 
incarnation and thence casts his rays upon 
us, he produces effects of grace and other 
impressions of salvation, different from what 
he does when he is in the mystery of his birth 
or of his resurrection. Each mystery has its 
own light and warmth, its ideas and sentiments, 
its affections and virtues ; these constitute the 
particular spirit of the mystery, its principle, 
its soul, so to speak, and consequently they 



24 Mysteries of Oil}' Lord. 

are what we should especially endeavor to 
understand and to imprint in our souls. 

We should not, meanwhile, forget the body 
and exterior of the mystery, for he who would 
desire to imitate only its interior and spirit 
would assuredly deceive himself, and would be 
like a person seeking a man and then content- 
ing himself with only a soul ; for just as a man 
is not a soul alone, nor a body alone, but a 
soul and body joined and united, so our Lord's 
mysteries are composed of the union of the 
interior and exterior, and not of the one 
without the other. Moreover, the exterior of 
the mystery serves to dispose and prepare us 
to receive and appreciate the interior, and 
therefore should be studied first ; for, even 
as God does not create the soul of man until 
his body be formed and organized to a certain 
point, so our Lord does not produce the spirit' 
and interior ; that is to say, the thoughts, 
affections, and fruits of his incarnation, his 
nativity, or his passion, in a man who is not 
first prepared by the exterior acts of those 
mysteries. 

It is, then, necessary for whosoever would 
share in the grace, and receive the spirit of a 
mystery, for example, our Lord's nativity, to 
prepare himself by some act of poverty, by some 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 25 

endurance of cold or discomfort ; for he who 
would expect to profit by this mystery while 
retaining an affection for riches and pleasures,, 
would grossly deceive himself, and would 
resemble a person turning his back to the 
place to which he desires to go ; and this 
because the disposition of him who desires 
something must always have some conformity 
to the object of his desire. 

As our Lord's mysteries are the vital princi- 
ples and causes of our salvation, it is necessary, 
if we would be saved, that they be applied to 
us and in some sort renewed in us. As it is^ 
not enough for our salvation that we rise and 
ascend into heaven in the person of our Lord, 
who contained us all in himself by grace and 
by glory, if we do not also in our own persons 
rise and ascend into heaven ; so it is not 
sufficient that we be incarnate, that Ave be 
born, and that we suffer and die in him, if we 
do not likewise accomplish these acts after 
his example in ourselves, because the imitation; 
and re-accomplishment of these last mysteries 
in us is the road to the glory of the first. In; 
the great mystery of our fall, and in conse- 
quence of our sad condemnation, not only w T e 
all once sinned in Adam, as St. Paul says, and 

were all driven from Paradise and died in him, 
3 



26 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

but, moreover, we are individually stained 
with sin, we are banished from that place of 
:happiness, and we are subjected to the rigor- 
ous sentence of death. Our Lord's mysteries, 
the painful and the joyous, the ignominious 
and the glorious, must be renewed in us indi- 
vidually, their likeness must be impressed 
upon, and their effects produced in, every 
•individual soul. 

For this reason we should take great pains 
to unite ourselves with them, especially at the 
times when the Church proposes them to us 
'because then they have more efficacy. We 
must believe that it is not without a reason 
that our Lord inspires his Church to put 
! before our eyes at such or such a time the 
mysteries of his life, but in order that then 
more than at another time he may render 
them useful to us and communicate their fruits 
imore abundantly. The prophet Isaiah indeed 
promises us that we shall draw joyfully from 
the fountains of the Saviour, which are his 
'mysteries, the waters of grace, of the virtues, 
and of our salvation ; but the prophet Zacha- 
riah adds that this shall be on a certain day : 
" In that day," he says, " there shall be a foun- 
tain open to the house of David, and to the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem." (Zach. xiii. I.) 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 2 J 

It is, then, " in that day," that is at the time 
the Church directs, that the soul should draw 
those salutary waters from the mysterious 
fountains of the Saviour, because then they 
are open and send forth their waters with full 
force ; whereas at other times, if they are not 
altogether closed, they are at least not so 
widely open and do not pour out their streams 
so abundantly. So, while the precious waters 
flow plenteously, the soul should take advan- 
tage of them ; and thus she may reap more 
fruit in a single day than she would in six or 
eight at another season, as is related of the 
Blessed Mary d'Ognies in her life written by 
Cardinal de Vitry. 

But, as dispositions are various and the 
movements of the Holy Spirit diverse, this 
does not prevent there being souls that have 
greater facility in entering into one mystery 
than into another, and drawing more profit 
from one than from another ; such souls should 
stay and draw the waters of their salvation 
and advancement in virtue as long as the mys- 
terious fount remains open to them. 

You ask me now liozv we may unite our- 
selves to these mysteries of our Lord's life and 
death. I reply that, granted the knowledge 
faith gives us of them and which is suffi- 



28 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

cicnt, it is chiefly by means of the affections 
and the virtues relating to them, as you will 
see when we treat of each of the mysteries 
separately. 

We have arranged these mysteries and the 
practices of the union we should contract 
through them with our Lord, in the following 
manner : 

From Advent to Christmas the practice will 
be upon the mystery of our Lord's incarnation. 
■ From Christmas to Lent we will dwell upon 
the nativity, the circumcision, the adoration 
of the Magi, the flight into Egypt and the 
dwelling there, the return to Nazareth, and 
the entire hidden life of our Lord. 

During the season of Lent we will study the 
passion and death of our Lord. 

From Easter to the feast of the Blessed 
Sacrament, our Lord's resurrection and ascen- 
sion, and the descent of the Holy Ghost, will 
be our subjects. 

From the feast of the Blessed Sacrament 
till Advent we will meditate upon the most 
Holy Eucharist considered as a Sacrament and 
a wSacrifice ; we will endeavor to unite our- 
selves to our Lord in this adorable mystery by 
suitable affections, especially by faith, hope, 
charity, and imitation of him. 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 29 

In each practice or exercise we shall always 
include six things which will be its six parts 
or divisions : 

First, the subject-matter about which we are 
to occupy ourselves, that is, the mystery pro- 
posed for our consideration and practice. We 
shall dwell especially upon the knowledge of 
it given us by faith, without seeking other 
lights which very often only amuse and puff 
up the mind while drying up the will. Faith, 
and not learning or science, converted and in- 
structed the world. Believe firmly the mys- 
tery just as the Church teaches it to you, and 
this is enough to cause it to produce in you its 
effects. 

Secondly, tlie affections and interior acts 
which we must conceive and form -according 
to the mystery, in which the soul should care- 
fully exercise itself, and keep itself, as it were, 
buried during the whole season of the mystery. 

Thirdly, the virtues most prominent in the 
mystery and the practice of which, both inte- 
rior and exterior, we should embrace with 
special affection, and of which we should daily 
produce with fidelity and confidence, but with- 
out haste or embarrassment of spirit, a certain 
number of acts in proportion to our disposition 
and strength. 



30 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

Upon this point I have an important coun- 
sel to give : some persons are afflicted, and 
complain that their souls do not open to the 
mysteries of -our Lord; that when the great 
feasts come, then it is that they have least 
devotion, that then their understanding is 
more than ever darkened and they comprehend 
nothing of these wonders ; their will is more 
than ever arid, so that they are obliged to 
remain dull and dry, as it were, at the gate of 
the mystery, without power to enter into it. I 
say to these persons that they should not be 
troubled, and complain of this ; God does not 
require of them such a sensible appreciation of 
his mysteries, inasmuch as it does not depend 
upon them, but is purely his gift. They would 
like to have clear and beautiful thoughts, to be 
filled with devout affections and to burst into 
floods of pious tears, never considering that the 
key to the stores of such sensible light and de- 
votion is not in their hands. All that God 
demands of them is that they apply them- 
selves to our Lord's mysteries by an imitation 
of the virtues he practiced therein, by a prac- 
tical reproduction of his mysteries in their 
daily lives ; this they can do with the help of 
his grace, which he is always ready to give 
them ; and this is the chief thing, for, as our 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 31 

Lord's principal object in his mysteries was to 
effect our salvation and as a means to this, to 
render us virtuous, the accomplishment of this 
object in us by the practice of the virtues must 
be their most important and most necessary 
fruit. 

St. Bernard, treating of the mystery of the 
nativity, says-: " In order that Mary, Joseph, 
and the Infant cradled in the manger may 
always dwell in us, in order that we may enter 
into the mystery of our Lord's nativity, and 
that it may penetrate our souls, let us live in 
this world soberly, justly, and piously." (Serm. 
4, in Nat. Dom.) And St. Paul, speaking on 
the same subject, teaches us in positive 
terms the same thing — not to seek to have 
grand lights nor lofty conceptions: " The 
grace of God our Saviour hath appeared to all 
men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness 
and worldly desires, we should live soberly 
and justly and piously in this world." (Tit. ii. 
11.) Our Saviour Jesus Christ, with infinite 
goodness and grace, has appeared as the Sun 
of Justice to the eyes of all men, to dissipate 
their darkness and teach them to avoid sin, 
to renounce worldly desires, and to lead lives 
of sobriety toward themselves, of justice 
toward their neighbor, and of piety toward 



32 Mysteries of Our Lord. . 

God. It is, then, in this way, a way all are 
capable of, that we ought to unite ourselves to 
our Lord's mysteries. 

Fourthly, meditations on the mysteries of 
the season : these you can easily enough make 
yourself from the matter contained in each 
practice or exercise, dwelling upon whatever 
moves you most ; or you can select them from 
such books as you judge most suitable. 

Fifthly, readings appropriate to each exer- 
cise will be indicated, without however for- 
bidding you to select others, provided they 
relate to the subject. 

Finally, the sixth thing will be ejacidatory 
verses, which should be always in the heart and 
often on the lips, in order to keep the mystery 
fresh in the memory, and, by a constant recol- 
lection of it, to unite us to it, and, through it, 
to our Lord. 

Besides all these, there are still three things 
to be remarked concerning the affections : 

The first is the very common and injurious 
delusion of taking much more pains and em- 
ploying much more time to cultivate and 
polish the understanding than the will, al- 
though merit, sanctity, and perfection in this 
life, are not in the understanding, but in the 
will. We seek only to learn, to enlighten our 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 33 

mind, and to add knowledge to knowledge, 
and we neglect our will, which meanwhile 
needs to be carefully exercised in affections of 
piety and incited to the love and practice of 
humility, patience, and the other virtues, most 
particularly charity, wherein the perfection of 
the will lies. We all know quite enough, and 
much more than we practice. Who does not 
know that he ought to love God with all his 
heart, and ought to avoid sin above every- 
thing ? And nevertheless how few there are 
who do it ! The reason of this disorder is 
that our mind has an extreme desire to learn, 
and we naturally find much pleasure in the 
acquisition of knowledge, whereas our will is 
indifferent to virtue and must be constrained 
to practice it, thus obliging us to do violence 
to ourselves. 

The second thing to be remembered is also 
another illusion that possesses a vast number 
of persons who in the spiritual life are gov- 
erned too much by the senses ; they wish to 
feel their spiritual operations, and, if they are 
not sensibly touched and moved in their devo- 
tional exercises, they are troubled, become 
uneasy, and believe they are making no pro- 
gress. To disabuse these persons, let me as- 
sure them that the spiritual life is, as its name 



34 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

implies, a life whose vital acts take place in 
the spirit, and not in the body. Material 
things make sensible impressions upon the 
body ; thus fire makes itself felt in the hand by 
means of heat, and ice by cold. Spiritual things 
do not act upon the soul in the same manner, 
but insensibly, producing in it spiritual effects : 
which action consists in causing it to avoid 
evil and to do good, in enlightening its under- 
standing with knowledge necessary for salva- 
tion, in strengthening its will so as to regulate 
its affections, that it may bear patiently its 
aridities and all its trials, govern rightly the 
movements of the body, and, in a word, prac- 
tice all virtue. 

If sometimes during exercises of piety the 
body is penetrated with sensible consolation, 
it is rather the pure effect of the grace and 
unction of the Holy Ghost, than of the spirit- 
ual operation of the soul. 

The third thing to be remarked is, that 
when you desire to obtain some virtue or 
other favor from God, you should, among all 
dispositions and means, make use principally 
of prayer or petition, because by it you will 
attain your end more speedily, more easily, 
and more certainly, than by reading, medita- 
tion, or other operations of the understand- 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 35 

ing. Therefore ask perseveringly by prayers, 
sometimes long, sometimes short, but always 
earnest, thus doing what our Lord and his 
apostles so frequently recommended, namely, 
to " pray without ceasing." (Luke xxi. 36 ; 
t Thess. v. 17.) 

To induce our Lord to bless your enterprise 
and pour upon you through these channels of 
salvation an abundance of graces, it will be 
well to prepare yourself for each exercise by 
Communion and some other good works. 

In conclusion, I say to all who are sincerely 
and earnestly desirous to be saved, that they 
should before everything else endeavor to 
unite themselves to their Saviour ; that, seek- 
ing virtue, perfection, and God, they should 
exert all their efforts ta unite themselves inti- 
mately with Jesus Christ, because he is the 
model of all virtues, the example of perfec- 
tion, and the road by which to seek and reach 
God. St? Augustine says : " We have no road 
that is shorter and surer, we can conceive of 
no means more efficacious to approach and 
reach God, than Jesus Christ." (Aug. i.n Ps. 
cxviii., Cone. 6.) 

Let us, then, take great pains to unite our- 
selves continually to him in everything, but 



36 Mysteries of Our Lord. 

chiefly in his mysteries, according to the di- 
rections that will be given in this book. Cer- 
tainly, as the well-being of a child depends 
on its remaining at its mother's breast, whence 
it draws the nourishment that makes it grow 
and become strong, so we, if we would grow 
in grace and become strong in virtue, must 
cling to our Lord in his amiable mysteries. Let 
us go to these fountains of the Saviour to draw 
with faith in their truth, with deep affection 
of the heart, and a desire of imitation by our 
works, the waters of our salvation and beati- 
tude. In the churches, sings David in pro- 
phetic vision of these mysteries, " bless ye 
God, the Lord, from the fountains of Israel. 
There is Benjamin, a youth in ecstasy of 
mind." (Ps. Ixvii. 27, 28.) 

Praise and bless God for the fountains of 
Israel, which are the mysteries of his Son, in 
which the little Benjamin, that is, the soul, 
will exercise itself in a spirit of lowliness, 
simplicity, and faith, and in its exercises will 
have transports of admiration, reverence, love, 
humility, and other sentiments. Moses had 
previously spoken under the same inspiration : 
4< Benjamin, the best beloved of the Lord, shall 
dwell confidently in him ; as in a bridal-cham- 



Mysteries of Our Lord. 37 

ber shall he rest all the day long." (Deut. 
xxxiii. 12.) Benjamin, the beloved of the 
Lord, shall dwell in confidence in these mys- 
teries, and shall rest therein all his life long as 
in a place of peace, sleep, and repose. 



CHAPTER II. 

JESUS CHRIST IS THE SPIRITUAL AIR THAT 
WE OUGHT CONSTANTLY TO BREATHE. 

Spiritiis oris nostri Christus Dominus. — Lam. i\\, 20). 
The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord. 

THESE are the words of the Prophet Jere- 
miah, which St. Irenseus, St. Justin, Origen, 
Tertullian, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and a 
multitude of other Fathers understand to refer 
literally to our Lord, to signify that he is the 
breath of our nostrils and the air that \vc 
-ought constantly to breathe. Among all the 
things we need for our life and which we can- 
not dispense with, experience shows that the 
most necessary is, beyond doubt, air ; without 
it we would surely and speedily die. The 
necessity for air arises from the fact that our 
life depends upon the preservation of the 
natural heat of the blood ; this heat being 
very great, requires to be constantly cooled so 
that it will not extinguish itself; for heat is 
extinguished by its own intensity if it is not 
tempered by cool air, as is seen in fire in an 
oven, which goes out directly if the mouth of 



Jes?(s Christ the Spiritual Air. 39 

the oven is closed, and in animals that are 
stifled to death. This is the reason why respi- 
ration is necessary to our life.* 

The breath of our mouth, Clwist the Lord. — 
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the breath of our 
mouth and the air our soul should breathe. 
Just as we have absolute need of the air for 
the natural life of our bodies, so, and in an 
incomparably greater degree, the spiritual and 
divine air which is Jesus Christ, is necessary 
for the supernatural life of our souls. We 
would soon die without air, and to prevent 
this we breathe it constantly every hour and 
moment, at all times and in all places ; in like 
manner we have an extreme and indispensable 
need of Jesus Christ for all that concerns our 
salvation, and our souls cannot without him 
be for a moment alive and in a state of grace ; 
therefore we must constantly draw him into 
us and inhale him. 

Now, with regard to the manner of inhaling 
our Lord and drawing him into us, I will tell 
you that there are several different ways. We 
notice that the air we breathe is not always 
the same ; that sometimes it is warm and some- 

* The reader is reminded that this passage was written two hun- 
dred years ago, when the natural sciences were not so well 
understood as at the present day. — Translator. 



40 Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 

- times cold ; one day dry and the next damp ; 
in one place pure and rarefied, as on the moun- 
tains, and in another place, as in the valleys 
and over marshes, heavy and thick ; that the 
bodies of persons brought up in different at- 
mospheres have different constitutions and 
tendencies, and even their minds are fre- 
quently affected by the same cause. In like 
manner, our spiritual and divine air, that is 
our Lord Jesus Christ, has different qualities in 
our regard ; and we must inhale and draw him 
into us according to this diversity. 

First, we must inhale and draw him into us 
in his characters of our Saviour, our Redeemer, 
our High Priest, our Master, our Model, our 
Remedy for all our evils, and our Source of all 
blessings. 

Secondly, we must inhale him in his virtues 
and draw him into us, sometimes humble, some- 
times patient, at another time obedient, then 
meek, charitable, forgiving injuries done him, 
or according to his practice of some other 
virtue in our regard. 

Thirdly, in his mysteries, we have to inhale 
our Lord incarnate, or newly born, or lead- 
ing a hidden life, or conversing with men, or 
suffering and dying, or ascending into heaven, 
or in some other mystery. 



Jcs2is Christ the Spiritual Air. 41 

. When we have drawn Jesus Christ into us 
in these different manners, we must offer him 
to God his Father with most profound respect, 
with infinite thanksgivings to him for having 
given his Son to us in all these states, with an 
ardent zeal for the divine glory and a burning 
desire that he may, under these different forms, 
glorify and praise God as God merits, and that 
we, on our part, may with all our strength 
honor, love, and serve God in Christ and by 
Christ. 

The reader may ask me, moreover, what 
means we must use to inhale our Lord, and 
with what chains we can draw him to us. I 
reply that it must be, in the first place, by acts 
of faith, believing firmly two things : first, that 
our Lord is truly such as his mysteries repre- 
sent him, that he became incarnate, that he is 
our Saviour, our Redeemer, that he is humble, 
etc. ; secondly, that we have an absolute need 
of him in these states, that without him there is 
no salvation for us, that without him we would 
be forever in bondage and misery, that with- 
out him we could never have a truly humble 
thought, and that we must derive from him 
all the good we are capable of. 

Just as anything in our body that is not 
animated by our soul has no life, as our hair 



42 Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 

and nails, so all in us that our Lord, who 
is our only Saviour and our true life, does not 
touch, is dead and lost. If his thoughts, his 
affections, his words and his works, do not 
purify and sanctify ours, the latter are stained 
and criminal ; if his prayers do not animate 
and vivify ours, then ours are only aberrations, 
indevotion, and irreverence ; if his sufferings 
are not applied and united to our sufferings, 
ours are useless and lost, and are no more than 
evils to us ; and if his death does not commu- 
nicate its merit and strength to ours, our death 
will be the death of a reprobate. " If I shall 
touch only his garment, I shall be healed," 
said the woman afflicted with an issue of 
blood. (Matt. ix. 21.) If I can but touch 
his robe I shall be healed ; without this touch 
I shall never be healed, no matter what I do. 
The • second thing by means of which we 
must draw our Lord to us, is desires ; and the 
third, petitions. For, as the lungs and heart 
by their dilatation attract the air, so the soul 
attracts our Lord when she opens and expands 
with her desires and prayers ; whence it is 
that we may say with the Royal Prophet : 
" I opened my mouth and panted." (Ps. 
cxviii. 131.) I opened the mouth of my 
soul and drew my spiritual breath, which is 



Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 43 

our Lord, who himself by the same prophet 
had commanded me, saying: "Open thy 
mouth wide and I will fill it" (Ps. lxxx. 11) 
with great desires. We must enkindle in our 
souls ardent desires and burning wishes for 
our Lord to come to us in such or such a 
.aality, in this virtue, or in that particular 
mystery, and we must beg him to come, pray 
him, suppHcate him, conjure him with all the 
earnestness possible. 

Let us say to him with Isaiah : " Thy name 
and thy remembrance are the desire of my 
soul." (Is. xxvi. 8.) Thy name and thy mem- 
ory, the memory of thy incarnation, of thy 
humility, of thy character as my Saviour, is 
foremost in my mind, and I desire to draw 
thee to me in that state and in that beautiful 
and salutary character. 

"My soul hath desired thee in the night; 
yea, and with my spirit within me in the 
morning early I will watch to thee." (Is. 
xxvi. 9.) My soul hath thought of thee during 
the night ; with ardent affections it hath longed 
for thee in the mystery of thy birth. My eyes 
opened early in the morning to see if thou 
hadst come. 

" I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord. 
. . My soul hath fainted after thy salvation. 



44 Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 

. . As the hart panteth after the fountains of 
waters, so my soul panteth after thee, O God. 
'My soul hath thirsted after the strong living 
God. When shall I come and appear before 
the face of God?" (Ps. cxviii. 174; xli. 1, 2.) 

O my Lord, how I long for thee in the mys- 
tery of thy hidden life, in thy virtue of patience, 
in the functions of pastor, physician, high 
priest, which thou dost exercise toward me, 
and which are the sources of my salvation ! 
My soul faints through the vehemence of its 
desire. As the hart, pursued by the hunters 
and parched with thirst, runs with all '■ 3 
strength to the fountains to drink, so my soul, 
O my God and my risen Lord, runs to thee. 
Oh ! how I thirst for Jesus Christ, my Saviour, 
for my sake withdrawn into the desert, suffer- 
ing for me, for me obedient even unto death, 
so that he may come to me, may enter into 
me, may impress upon me the features of his 
virtues and his mysteries ! And wdien shall I 
present myself to him marked with those noble 
features ? 

Again, say to our Lord with the same David : 
"Thou art my helper and my protector. O my 
God, be not slack." (Ps. xxxix. 18.) Thou 
art my help and my protection. O my God. do 
not delay thy coming. And with the Spouse 



Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 45 

in the Apocalypse : " Come. . . Amen. Come 
Lord Jesus." ' (Apoc. xxii. 20.) Come, Oh ! 
come, Jesus my Saviour, and say to me : 
"Surely I come quickly," thou shalt see me 
very soon. 

With St. Bernard let us repeat to him : 

" Desidero te millies : 
Mi Jesu, quando venies ? 
O mi Jesu dulcissz/7ie, 
Spes suspirantis animce ; 
Te pice quaerunt lachrymcz, 
Et clamor mentis intimcz" 

(Bern. Jubil.) 

"A thousand times I sigh for thee : 
O Jesus mine, when wilt thou come ? 
O Jesus mine, most sweet to me, 
My panting spirit's hope and home, 
In quest of thee 'mid tears and cries 
My famished soul relentless flies." 

Or, again : — 

" yesu Christe, fous indeficiens, 
Fous humana cor da reficiens ; 
Te saspiro te solum sitiens, 
Tit solus es mild sufficiens." 

(Id. Orat. Rhythm, ad Chr. et B. V.) 

"O Jesus Christ, unfailing fount of love, 
O fount, the human heart's refreshing cup, 
For thee I breathe, for thee alone I thirst, 
For thou to me alone art all enough." 

After the desires you should proceed to 
prayers and supplications, most earnestly beg- 
ging our Lord for two things : first, that it 
may please him to come to you in this char- 



46 J e sits Christ the Spiritual Air. 

acter, or in that virtue, or that particular 
mystery ; secondly, that he will deign to 
bestow upon you the salutary effects of the 
character in which you invite him to come, 
that he will impart to you the knowledge, 
esteem, and love he had for that special virtue, 
and grant you to practice it as he did, and 
that he will communicate to you the lights 
and affections belonging to the mystery. Beg 
him to bestow on you the spirit and grace of 
that, and of all his mysteries, to apply to you 
their merits, and furnish you the assistance 
necessary to imitate the virtues he practiced 
in them ; and in this way to impress upon you 
in a manner his incarnation, his birth, his 
solitary life, his conversation, his sufferings 
and death, and enable you to express and 
represent him incarnate, newly-born, solitary, 
conversing with men, suffering, dying, and 
dead, in your life and in your conduct. 

This is what the Church often asks in the 
holy sacrifice of the Mass, as when she says : 
" Titos tantis, Domine, dignaris uti mysteriis, 
qucesumus ut effectibus 110s eontm vcracitcr 
aptare digneris" (Dom. 3d, post Epiph.) "We 
beseech thee, O Lord, that we, to whom thou 
vouchsafest the enjoyment of so great mys- 
teries, may be fitted truly to receive their 



Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 47 

benefits." And again : " Ut sacri peragat 
instituta mysterii, et salutare tirani in uibis 
mirabiliter operetur." (Dom. 3d Adv.) "Let 
the sacrifice of our devotion, we beseech thee, 
O Lord, be always offered unto thee ; that it 
may both accomplish this sacred mystery, and 
also wonderfully work in us thy salvation." 

In the fourth place, we may draw our Lord 
into us in a mystery by exercising the affec- 
tions which have most harmony with it, and 
which we shall indicate in each division of this 
book. 

The fifth means of drawing our Lord to us 
is the courageous and exact practice of the 
virtues, which you will also find indicated. 

Behold, then, what should be our continual 
occupation and our mo-st cherished practice ! 
It is the perpetual breathing of Jesus Christ 
as our spiritual air, and then the breathing or 
sending him back to God his Father, to be 
our mediator before the Eternal Throne, our 
advocate, our refuge, our priest, and our sacri- 
fice of adoration, expiation, thanksgiving and 
impetration, in a word, to be our all. 

In addition to what we have already men- 
tioned, we should, in order to practice this 
exercise still more perfectly, breathe and draw 
our Lord into us in his mysteries according as 



48 Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 

the Church solemnizes them, or according as 
our devotion inclines or our wants oblige us. 

You should draw him into you in his virtues, 
when you have occasion to practice those 
virtues, or to overcome the contrary vices ; 
for example, when you ought to humble your- 
self, when you have to endure contempt or 
conquer a sentiment of vanity and self-esteem, 
inhale our Lord humble, teaching you interiorly 
to what degree he humbled himself for you, 
and saying to you : " Learn of me, for I am 
humble of heart." When it is your duty to 
obey, and to submit your will and judgment, 
inhale our Lord obedient and submissive ; 
he will enable you to understand his perfect 
submission, and how he obeyed even unto death 
and the death of the cross for love of you. Do 
the same with regard to the other virtues. 

But as our salvation and perfection consist 
especially in two things — in acting and suffer- 
ing, we should imitate our Lord in both 
respects. 

First, in acting. As we daily act and do 
something, and as our Lord, while on earth, 
did the same, we should in all our actions 
breathe our Lord acting, and should do every- 
thing with him, by him, and in him, in his 
fashion, both as to the interior and the exterior 



Jesus CJirist t/w Spiritual Air. 49 

of the act, the intentions, the moderation, the 
time, the place, and all other circumstances. 
Just as your soul is the cause of all the actions 
of your body in the natural life, our Lord, 
taking the place of soul in your supernatural 
and divine life, should be the cause or spring 
of all the actions of both your soul and your 
body ; and then you may say with St. Paul : 
"I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me." 
(Gal. ii. 20.) I live ; no, it is not I who live, 
but it is Jesus Christ who lives, thinks, loves, 
hates, speaks, and acts in me. 

To act excellently toward God you must, 
in the following manner, draw our Lord to you 
and bind yourself to him : Our Lord was 
always recollected in God, always attentive 
to God, always occupied with God, keeping 
himself in spirit before the Infinite Majesty 
with extreme care, with singular modesty, 
with most profound reverence, and with inex- 
plicable abasements, humiliations, and anni- 
hilations of self, uninterruptedly offering to 
God for the divine glory, his soul and body, his 
being, his faculties, his acts, and all that 
passed in the universe. Draw our Lord into 
you by conducting yourself in the sarrie man- 
ner toward God, so as to do with Christ and 



50 Jesus CJirist the Spiritual Air. 

like him the same thing, according to your 
capacity. 

When you are going to pray, either mentally 
cr vocally, inhale our Lord praying to his 
Father ; and seeing his attention, devotion, 
fervor, and respect, endeavor to imitate him in 
such a way that it maybe he who prays in you 
and by you. 

If you have the honor to be a priest and to 
say Mass, inhale him as your high priest who, 
in you and by you, sacrifices himself to God 
the Father for his glory and your salvation, 
and offers himself and you as a sacrifice of 
infinite adoration, in acknowledgment that 
God is your first principle from whom you 
derive your body, your soul, and all that you 
have ; that he is your sovereign Lord who has 
absolute power over you to do with you what- 
soever he wills, without your having any right 
on your part to oppose him by the least 
thought, or to contradict him by the least 
word ; and that he is your last end for whose 
glory you were created, and for whom you 
ought entirely and constantly to employ and 
spend yourself. This sacrifice of the Mass is 
one of infinite propitiation to obtain the par- 
don of your sins and the remission of the 
punishment due to them ; it is a sacrifice of 



Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air, 51 

infinite thanksgiving to thank God for all the 
benefits with which he has loaded you ; a sac- 
rifice of infinite impetration to obtain from him 
fresh benefits, that is, all the assistance you 
need. " As Christ says the Mass with you and 
in you, say it also with him and in him. 

By following this plan all the faithful, who, 
according to St. Peter, (1 Petr. ii. 9) are in a 
certain manner raised to the dignity of priests, 
may also in some sort say Mass, drawing to 
themselves our Lord who performs this action 
and offers this sacrifice. 

After having drawn our Lord into you in 
the Mass as your priest, draw him in the 
Blessed Sacrament as your Shepherd who 
nourishes you with his own flesh and blood 
and gives you a divine food capable of pro- 
ducing in your soul, if it is well disposed, the 
effects of bodily food, which will be to 
strengthen it, delight it, satisfy it, unite it to 
him, and cause it to sleep and consequently 
to forget all creatures; who will fulfill these 
words of the Wise Man: " With the bread of 
life and understanding he shall feed him, and 
give him the water of wholesome wisdom to 
drink," (Eccl. xv. 3,) the water of the wisdom 
of his salvation. 

Having received our Lord, try to employ 



52 Jesus Clirist the Spiritual Air. 

well the precious moments, and beg this dear 
Shepherd to operate in you in a high degree 
all these effects. 

To act in a Christian and holy manner 
toward your neighbor, draw into you our 
Lord, loving men, honoring, instructing, re- 
proving them, bearing w T itll them, having 
compassion on their spiritual and corporal 
miseries, giving them remedies, conversing 
with them. See him with the Samaritan 
woman, and remark w r ith what gentleness, 
affability, charity, and prudence, he deals with 
her. Take courage to imitate him, breathe 
him in his gracious, amiable, and most useful 
discourse, in his modest and peaceful de- 
meanor, in his condescension, his kindness, 
and his patience, and in all the other virtues 
he practiced in the highest degree during his 
intercourse with men ; and study to reproduce 
in your conduct and conversation these fea- 
tures of perfection, these lineaments of graces. 

With regard to the actions that relate to 
yourself do the same : for example, when 
going to take your meals, breathe our Lord 
taking his, either alone or in company, and 
consider his temperance, his sobriety, and his 
modesty. Laboring, traveling, or performing 
any other action, inhale our Lord engaged 



Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 53 

in the same, and act with him and by his 
spirit, offering with the Wise Man this prayer 
to God : " Send wisdom out of thy holy hea- 
ven, and from the throne of thy majesty, that 
she may be with me and may labor with me." 
(Wis. ix. 10.) O God ! send me from on high 
and from the throne of thy greatness, thy 
Son, the Incarnate Wisdom, so that he may 
be in me and may labor with me ; for I am 
sure that without him I shall fail in everything, 
and shall do naught that will be of value. 

Secondly, we must imitate our Lord in suf- 
fering. When you have to endure some 
suffering of bouy or soul, breathe our Lord 
suffering, so that he may communicate to you 
his patience and fortitude, and you may, as 
far as is possible, suffer with him for the same 
ends and in the same manner. There are 
souls that are always afflicted, and bodies that 
are always sick and infirm : let these persons 
as their sovereign remedy, draw into them our 
Lord fastened for cheir sake to the cross and 
thereon suffering inexplicable torments and 
extreme agonies ; and wdien the moment of 
their death approaches, that moment which 
must decide their happy or unhappy eternity, 
or even now, and frequently, let them take 
great care to draw into them our Lord dying to 



54 Jesus Christ the Spiritual Air. 

console and sanctify their death by his, and 
to make theirs a dependence and a consequence 
of his. 

Behold, then, the method we must use to 
breathe our spiritual air, and to draw our Lord 
into us. As this is absolutely necessary for 
our salvation and our perfection, we must en- 
deavor to practice it without relaxation, and, 
in order to do so, can make this compact with 
our Lord, namely, that each moment our body 
breathes the physical air, we will have the 
intention of breathing him and drawing him 
into us in one or more of the ways mentioned, 
or in all of them. Certainly, if our body is so 
anxious and careful to breathe continually the 
air for the preservation of its natural life, our 
soul should be vastly more careful to breathe 
unceasingly our Lord to preserve its life of 
grace. Then let it do so with as much dili- 
gence and fidelity as the importance of the 
affair deserves. 



CHAPTER III. 

PRACTICE OF UNION AYITH OUR LORD JESUS 
CHRIST FOR THE SEASON OF ADVENT. 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

THE practice of union with our Lord for the 
season of Advent, has for its subject the 
adorable mystery of the incarnation, and his 
dwelling during the space of nine months in 
the most pure womb of his holy Mother. The 
mystery of the incarnation is a mystery of 
union, a mystery of love, a mystery of glorifi- 
cation, and a mystery of annihilation. 

It is a mystery of union, because the divine 
nature was in it united intimately, substan- 
tially, personally, and forever, with the human 
nature, and the Son of God became the Son 
of man. " Verbiim caro factimi est. The word 
was made flesh," (John. i. 14,) and the one 
formed with the other so close a union " that," 
St. Bernard says, " God and slime, that is to 
say, man made from the slime of the earth, 
were joined together in the inseparable unity 
of one person, and all that God did appeared 
to be done by the slime, and all that the slime 



56 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

suffered seemed to be suffered by God in it, 
though a mystery as incomprehensible as it is 
inexplicable." (Serm. 2 in Vigil. Nativ.) And 
earlier than St. Bernard, St. Leo had said : 
" There is such a communication and so close 
a union between the two natures, while each 
retains inviolable its own qualities, that there 
is no division of goods nor of evils between 
them, but what belongs to one belongs also 
to the other." (Serm. 8 in Nativ. Dom.) So 
the Son of God by this union made himself, as 
St. Paul says, "in all things such as we are, 
without sin." (Heb. iv. 15.) 

The incarnation is a mystery of love, be- 
cause, as the principal and strongest inclina- 
tion of the person who loves is to desire and 
procure by all the means he can devise, union 
with the person beloved, the love that God 
bore to man caused him to desire, to seek, and 
to bring about this admirable union. And this 
sliows evidently and clearer than the sun the 
infinite greatness of that love which St. Paul 
so often describes to the faithful, and which he 
says surpasses all thought and language. 

The incarnation is a mystery of glorification, 
inasmuch as human nature was in it raised to 
such a height of glory that there is no science 
nor power that can raise it higher. Speaking 



For the Season of Advent. 57 

on this subject St. Augustine says "that this 
elevation of human nature is so high and emi- 
nent that it cannot be more so." (L. 1, de 
Pr^ed., Sa,nct. c. 1.) The reason is manifest, 
because human nature is raised in this mystery 
to the throne of the Divinity, and a true man 
is become true God. St. Augustine in another 
place says : " Go.d desired to show in what 
esteem he held human nature, and what degree 
of honor he gave it among all creatures, when 
he was pleased to appear to the eyes of men 
as a true man." (L. de vera Relig. c. 16.) 

The incarnation is also a mystery of glorifi- 
cation of the Divinity ; because God, wishing 
to be infinitely glorified according to his merit, 
not only in himself, but also outside of himself, 
as he obtains the first by his Word which is 
the knowledge infinitely excellent and the 
sovereign esteem he has of himself, so for the 
latter purpose he has employed the only means 
possible, namely, the production of a creature 
capable of rendering him a glory absolutely 
infinite. 

This he has done in the adorable mystery 
of the incarnation wherein that same Word is 
personally united to our nature in an individual 
humanity, to which, besides the created gifts 
bestowed upon it that incomparably surpass 



58 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

all those he has granted to all other creatures, 
he has communicated substantially all his infi- 
nite perfections, making it infinitely holy, 
perfect, and capable of glorifying God infi- 
nitely ; and this in two manners : 

The first, by the simple manifestation of 
those perfections ; for, as St. Augustine says, 
" the beauty of creatures is the glorious testi- 
mony and the praise they render to him who 
created them." (Serm. 143, de temp.) 

The second, interiorly, by his own acts, 
which the Incarnate Word always referred to 
the honor of God, and which, being all infi- 
nitely excellent on account of the infinite 
dignity of his person, all honored God infi- 
nitely. This second manner is also exterior ; 
for our Lord by his example and teachings 
induced men to honor God, and he is, more- 
over, the cause of all the honor and praise that 
are offered to God and that will be offered 
throughout all eternity, and the principle of 
all the good works that will ever be done in 
the world, since they are due to his merits. 

This is the reason why the Sacred Scriptures 
frequently call the Incarnate Word the especial 
glory of God ; (Ps. lvi. 9 ; lxxxiv. 10 ; Is. Ix. 
I ; Rom, iii. 23) and the celebrated words of 
St. John: " Iti principio erat Vcrbnm, et Ver- 



For the Season of Advent. 59 

bunt erat apud Deum, et Dens erat Verbnm" 
(John i. 1,) express the same meaning. "In 
the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God." The 
Word that is God is the eternal and infinite 
glory of God, because it is the thought of 
infinite esteem which he has of himself and 
which is justly proportionate to its object. 
11 And the Word was made flesh," and we saw 
the glory of God that is that same Incarnate 
Word, the Son of God, the honor and glory of 
his Father, even as the wise son, as Solomon 
says, is the ornament and glory of an earthly 
father. (Prov, x. 1.) "The Word was made 
flesh ;" therefore, at the moment of his birth, 
the angels sang "Gloria in altissimis Deo"* 
as though they meant to say : We can now 
give to God in this Child all the glory he is 
worthy of; and it is this Child that gives it to 
him, and all creatures likewise can give it in 
and by this Child. 

Thus it is that our Lord Jesus Christ in his 
quality of the uncreated Word, is the infinite 
glory of God in himself from all eternity; and 
as the Incannate Word, he is still the infinite 
glory of God in himself and outside of himself 
for all eternity to come. This shows us that 

* " Glory to God in the highest."— (Luke ii. 14.) 



60 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

the incarnation is, as we have said, a mystery 
of glorification of the Divinity. 

It is, finally, a. mystery of annihilation, 
in the person of God, because, in order to 
unite himself to us in that manner and to 
testify his love for us by so indisputable a 
proof, and to elevate us to the height of infi- 
nite glory, it was necessary for him to humble, 
abase, and annihilate himself, making himself 
man, a son of Adam the sinner, a poor man 
and a miserable creature, and consequently a 
mere nothing, as the creature is of itself. St. 
Paul teaches us this great truth in these re- 
markable words : " Being in the form of God, 
he thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God ; but debased himself, taking the form of 
a servant, being made in the likeness of men, 
and in habit found as a man." (Philipp. ii. 6.) 
The Son being Go'd by essence, and not deem- 
ing it an injury to his Father to esteem and 
call himself God, nevertheless annihilated him- 
self, taking the nature of a servant when he 
took man's nature, and when he appeared both 
in body and soul in all things like us. 

The incarnation is a mystery of annihilation 
in the humanity of our Lord, because that 
humanity was despoiled of its natural person- 
ality, annihilated to itself and to all that 



For the Season of Advent. v 6 1 

distinguishes the person of a man ; and still 
further, it was annihilated in all the inclinations 
of man for honors, comforts, and pleasures, the 
Word to whom it was united, leading it in 
the very opposite ways of opprobrium, poverty, 
and suffering. 

The incarnation is a mystery of annihilation 
in our Lady, who, to be capable of assuming 
the character of Mother to the Man-God, 
had to be humbled and annihilated in her own 
estimation below all creatures. 

Our Lord, during the nine months that he 
dwelt in the most pure womb of the Blessed 
Virgin, as in the purest and holiest place on 
earth, was ceaselessly occupied in praising, 
blessing, adoring, thanking, and loving his 
Father, and in offering to him his soul and 
body, his being, his faculties and their opera- 
tions, for that Father's glory and the salvation 
of men. He addressed him at the instant of 
his incarnation these words of the Royal 
Prophet which the Apostle repeats: "Sacri- 
fice and oblation thou wouldst not, but a body 
thou has fitted to me. Holocausts for-sin did 
not please thee. Then said I : Behold I come, 
that I should do thy will, O God." (Heb. x, 
5, 6, 7 ; Ps. xxxix. 7.) I know that neither 
peace-offerings, nor holocausts, nor victims 



62 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

slain for the expiation of sin, please thee ; but 
, that thou hast given me a body to be sacrificed 
in their stead. Thou hast thus decreed ; I 
submit. I offer myself cheerfully for the exe- 
cution of the sentence, and I give myself to 
thee to do with me all that shall please thee. 
Our Lord also occupied himself in justifying 
and sanctifying his holy Mother, and in enrich- 
ing her with gifts and graces; he likewise 
thought graciously of all men, and of you in 
particular, and he yielded himself in spirit to 
suffering, infamy, and death, for your salva- 
tion. . 

Now, although the womb of the Blessed 
Virgin was the holiest place in all the universe 
and the one most worthy of receiving our 
Lord, still, in view of his infinite majesty as 
God, and of the perfect use he had of his rea- 
son as man, and of all the graces and wonder- 
ful gifts he possessed, the obscurity and lowli- 
ness of that dwelling where he was shut up in 
general privation of all the objects of the 
senses, causes the Church to say to him with 
St. Ambrose and St. Augustine : " Non lior- 
riiisti Virgiuis uterum? Thou didst not abhor 
the Virgin's womb, thou hadst no horror to 
enter it in order to accomplish our salva- 
tion. 



For the Season of Advent. 63 

II. — THE AFFECTIONS. 
/. Admiration. 

The first affection will be admiration and 
astonishment founded upon the grandeur of 
the mystery, and upon the grandeur of the 
benefits of which it is to us the source. 

Regarding the grandeur of the mystery it is 
enough to say : Verbum caro factum est — The 
Word was made flesh — because these words 
contain in a few syllables the novelty of novel- 
ties, the wonder of wonders, the miracle of 
miracles, that join in the same person great- 
ness with littleness, dignity with lowliness, 
beatitude with misery, immortality with death, 
eternity with time, all with nothing, the Cre- 
ator with the creature, and God with man. 

That God should become true man, and man 
true God, is something so strange and so above 
finite comprehension, that no created reason 
with all its power can understand how it was 
possible. The most magnificent and most 
perfect of all God's works and his incomparable 
master-piece, is, says St. Denis the Areopagite, 
the incarnation of his Son which so far sur- 
passes our intelligence that the most enlight- 
ened of the angels with all his natural intellect 



64 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

understands nothing- in it. (St. Dionys. de div. 
nomin. c. 2.) 

When we see a machine worked by some 
excellent engineer producing extraordinary 
and unexpected effects, we are astonished and 
look on in admiration. The change of King 
Nebuchodonosor into a beast, which, however, 
was not a change of substance and nature, but 
only of exterior appearance and of certain 
operations, impressed and terrified all the peo- 
ple of the time and all posterity. What 
admiration and delight then should we not 
experience at beholding the union of two 
natures infinitely diverse by which God became 
true man and man. true God ; by which the 
infinite was changed to the finite, the immense 
received limits, the omnipotent became weak, 
the most happy miserable, the immortal sub- 
ject to death ; by which God led the life and 
performed the actions of man, and man those 
of God ? " Quis audivit unquam tale" Isaiah 
cries out, " et quis vidit liinc simile?" Who 
ever saw or heard the like ? The same prophet 
remarks that for this reason the first name 
given to the Incarnate Word will be Admira- 
ble : % K Vocabitur nomen ejus Admirabilis" his 
name shall be called (Admirable) Wonderful. 
(Is. ix. 6.) 



For the Season of Advent. 65 

Our admiiacion and astonishment ought to 
have also for their object the grandeur of the 
benefits we receive from this mystery, and 
which are comprehended in these words : "Ft 
liabitavit in nobis." (John i. 14.) The Word 
was made flesh and dwelt among us ! By this 
dwelling he has delivered us from all our evils 
and has loaded us with his blessings ; he has 
united our nature to his divine person, and 
consequently, by the bond of relationship that 
we have with him in his human nature, has 
raised us to the sovereign honor of an alliance 
with God ; he has dissipated the darkness in 
which we were plunged and were wandering 
miserably and blindly to our damnation, send- 
ing us the clear daylight of truth and enabling 
us to see the sure road of our salvation ; he 
has destroyed the power of the devil and the 
tyranny of sin ; he has closed the gates of 
hell and opened to us those of paradise, that 
we may there live forever in happiness, with 
him. 

The Church in admiration calls this mystery 
a commerce and a wonderful traffic : 4 ' O ad- 
mirabile commerchim ! " And she has great 
reason, because therein our Lord has given us 
his divinity and taken our humanity ; he has 
conferred upon us his riches and his glory and 



66 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

has taken upon himself our poverty and infamy. 
What a traffic ! What graces ! What inex- 
plicable favors ! If a king should send to a 
poor villager overwhelmed with misery in his 
little cabin, ten millions of dollars, the poor 
man would undoubtedly be extremely aston- 
ished and surprised at such an unexpected 
gift from a prince, and without any merit on 
his part. This is what happens in the mys- 
tery of the incarnation, and in a far higher 
degree, both as regards the infinite greatness 
of the gift that is made and the infinite great- 
ness of the giver, as well as the infinite little- 
ness of man who receives it. 

2. Gratitude. 

For this reason man, moved by this inesti- 
mable benefit, should break forth with all the 
fullness of his affections into praises, benedic- 
tions, and thanksgivings to God, saying with 
David: "The mercies of the Lord I will sing 
forever." (Ps. lxxxviii. 2.) I will bless and 
thank him for them eternally ; and with Isaiah : 
4i O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee 
and give glory to thy name ; for thou hast 
done wonderful things, thy designs of old 
faithful. Amen." (Is. xxv. i.) O my Lord! 
I gladly tell thee that thou art my God ; I 



For the Season of Advent. 6j 

will praise thee and will glorify thy holy name 
with all my power, because thou hast done 
admirable things in the incarnation of thy Son 
which was the effect of thy love, and of those 
eternal thoughts thou hadst of my salvation, 
and the inviolable promises thou didst make 
of it, which thou hast executed in good time. 
Then he should exclaim in the words of the 
apostle : "Thanks be to God for his unspeak- 
able gifts !" (2 Cor. ix. 15.) Praise, adoration, 
and infinite thanks be offered to God for his 
unspeakable gift, which is his Son incarnate. 

Certainly St. Bernard is right in telling us : 
" Remember, man, that thou art dust, and 
therefore be not proud; and also remember 
that, even dust as thou art, thou art united to 
God, and therefore be not ungrateful." (Serin. 
2 in Cant.) And when he says in another 
place: " This benefit ought never to be for- 
gotten by those who have received it, and 
there are in it two things upon which they 
ought to deeply reflect : one is the manner in 
which God conferred it — he emptied himself 
for us ; and the other is the profit we have 
received from it, which was to fill us with him." 
Ingratitude for so great a benefit would be 
something fearful, and would deserve a terrible 
punishment. 



68 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

j. Love. 

As the love that God bears us was the true 
cause of the personal union he was pleased to 
contract with our nature, and the source of 
all the blessings we receive from it, we ought 
to accept that sovereign honor and the trea- 
sures of those immense blessings with sincere 
and ardent love. As God comes to us through 
love we ought to go to him in the same way, 
and with much greater reason, since he is of 
himself worthy of infinite love, and w^e of our- 
selves are only worthy of hate. The gift he 
has made us of his Son, and that which 'the 
Son has made us of himself, obliges us all to 
this love, and should force the most obstinate 
hearts. Love attains the highest degree of 
its perfection and exerts its last effort when it 
confers a gift commensurate with the power 
of the giver ; when this gift is something most 
precious and which the giver cherishes above 
all things ; when it is made without constraint 
or obligation and in a disinterested spirit ; and 
when, moreover, it is very necessary ai}d very 
useful to the one who receives it ; if you add 
to all these conditions the fact of the giver 
bestowing it with great difficulty and extreme 
pain, you can say nothing more. Now, all 



For the Season of Advent. 69 

these qualities are combined in excess in our 
Lord who was given to us in the incarnation, 
and who therefore exacts from us with perfect 
right a most ardent reciprocal love. 

4. Desires and Petitions. 

We should conceive burning desires and 
should ask most earnestly that our Lord would 
deign to come to us in this mystery. The just 
men of the Old Law earnestly prayed for the 
coming of the Messiah ; they greatly desired 
and sighed for it, and offered many petitions, 
and supplications, and vows, and tears, to draw 
him from heaven. Each one of them was, as 
well as Daniel, a man of desires, yir desideri- 
ornm. Send, O Lord, they said, send him 
whom thou hast resolved to send. "Drop 
down de\y, ye heavens, from above, and let the 
clouds rain the just ; let the earth be opened 
and bud forth a Saviour, and let justice spring 
up together. O that thou wouldst rend the 
heavens and wouldst come down." (Is. xlv. 
8; lxiv. 1.) Thou, O Saviour, so greatly de- 
sired, burst the heavens and come quickly. 
We cannot wait for thee to come by ordinary 
ways, we are so anxious for thee, so eager to 
behold thee. 

The first sentiment of her love that the 



JO Practice of Union with Our Lord 

Spouse revealed, and the first word from her 
lips in the Canticle was, according to the usual 
interpretation of the Fathers, an expression of 
the desire that filled all humanity, and espe- 
cially the synagogue, the desire of the coming 
of the Messiah, and the prayer she offered to 
obtain it. Let the Divine Word, she cried, 
uniting his nature to mine, give me the kiss of 
peace, reconciling me with God his Father, 
and teaching me not only by his angels and 
prophets, but by himself and with his own 
words, the doctrine of my salvation. 

In the eighth chapter of the same book, as 
the Fathers explain the passage, this trans- 
port of desire escapes from her heart and lips : 
" Who shall give thee to me for my brother, 
sucking the breasts of my mother, that I may 
find thee without and kiss thee ; and now no 
man may despise me ?" Who will do me this 
favor, O Divine Word and only Son of God ! 
that I may see thee clothed with my nature 
and shrouded with my flesh, and thus become 
my brother and the son of my mother ? Who 
will help me so that I will not be obliged to 
seek thee in the bosom of thy Father where 
thou art hidden from all eternity and enveloped 
with inaccessible light, but may find thee in 
the womb of thy Mother, or clinging to her 



For the Season of Advent. Jl 

breast ? Who will give me to see thee with 
my eyes, to hear thee with my ears, to touch 
thee with my hands, and, holding thee fast, to 
attach myself to thee by sentiments of faith, 
love, joy, gratitude, respect, adoration, obedi- 
ence, and homage, so that none may dare to 
contemn me, since by this mystery thou art 
become my brother and my spouse, and I thy 
sister and thy beloved ? 

In other passages the Spouse declares that 
he whom she sought was To Ins deside7-abilis, 
the All Desirable ; and she calls him the end 
of all her desires and the object of all her 
longings. 

Our Lord in the Apocalypse calls himself 
Amtriy which is a Hebrew word meaning, in 
its primitive signification, "it is so, it is true," 
because he is true and truth itself. "These 
things saith the Amen, the faithful and true 
witness." (Apoc. iii. 14.) In its secondary 
signification the word Amen is a prayer, or an 
expression of desire, " God grant that it may 
be so." Thus our Lord, the Amen, is the 
term of all our wishes, and his incarnation is 
the accomplishment of all our desires. The 
Mosarebs called our Lady when she was in 
the ardor of her desires for the incarnation, 
and especially on the day of the incarnation 



72 Practice of Union witli Our Lord 

when the great mystery was accomplished in 
her, our Lady of O, because the first word that 
escapes our heart and lips when we greatly 
desire a thing is, Outinam — Oh ! would to God. 
The seven anthems of the Magnificat which 
the Church sings during the seven days before 
Christmas and w T hich all begin with O, refer 
to this ; they are all desires and prayers urging 
the Eternal Word to come and accomplish the 
mystery of the incarnation. 

Let us, then, desire with all the earnestness 
we are capable of, and ask with all our strength, 
our Lord to come to us, to effect in our souls 
and bodies his incarnation, to impress its 'fea- 
tures upon us and communicate to us its grace 
and spirit. Let us continually inhale and draw 
the incarnate Word into us by acts of faith, by 
desires, by supplications, and by the burning 
words of the patriarchs, so that he may do for 
us what his divinity did for his humanity, which 
was to sanctify it, strengthen it, deify it, and 
render it so agreeable and glorious to God that 
the least of its actions, its slightest glance and 
most trifling movement procured infinite honor 
to the Eternal Father, and immense treasures 
of blessings to men ; and that we may have 
grace likewise to imitate his sacred humanity 
in all the duties it performed toward the 



For the Season of Advent. 73 

Divinity to which it was not only united sub- 
stantially and personally, but to which it con- 
tinued to unite itself by its own interior acts v 
by its love, its adorations, its glorifications, its- 
thanksgivings, -its zeal for God's honor, its. 
submission to his decrees, etc. Let us beg 
him to become incarnate in us ; and, as his 
incarnation is a mystery of union, of love, of 
glorification, and of annihilation, to operate in, 
us in an eminent degree all these effects. 

III. — THE VIRTUES. 

The most important point in these exercises. 
is the effective expression of our Lord's mys- 
teries, by the exact and constant practice of 
the virtues he practiced in them, the principal 
ones of which we shall always be careful to 
propose. 

1. Union with our Lord Jesus Christ. 

As our Lord so graciously and lovingly 
united himself to us in his incarnation, Ave 
ought, in order to express and represent this 
mystery, to exert all our efforts to unite our- 
selves to him. We ought to unite ourselves 
to him through the motives of love for him 
and zeal for his glory, and the knowledge of 
our extreme need of him. For, as our nature- 

7 



74 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

became innocent, holy, and perfect, only by 
union with the Word, we can individually share 
its regeneration only by uniting ourselves to 
the Incarnate Word. 

God himself gives us an example of what 
we must do to form this union with our Lord, 
and teaches us our lesson in it. First, as he 
took pleasure in uniting himself to that sacred 
humanity, we should imitate him by finding 
in our union with our Lord our satisfaction and 
our chief delight. Secondly, as he united him- 
self to that humanity in order to come and 
unite himself to us, and through it to confer 
upon us his gifts, w T e should go to him likewise 
through it, should by it unite ourselves to him 
aaid render ourselves capable of receiving his 
gifts and the effects of his goodness. Thirdly, 
as he united himself to that adorable humanity 
in order to draw from it his own glory and to 
accomplish our salvation, we should in the 
same way unite ourselves to it in order to 
promote God's honor and to save our own 
souls. Assuredly, since God throughout all 
eternity has performed no greater act, none 
more excellent, none more glorious to him 
and more useful to us, than when he united 
himself to that most holy humanity, w r e, simi- 
larly, can do nothing that will render more 



For the Season of Advent. 75 

glory and praise to God, nor that will be more 
advantageous to us, than to unite ourselves to 
it. Finally, as God united himself to that 
sacred humanity intimately, inseparably, and 
forever, not forsaking it at the hour of death, 
let us likewise contract with our Lord an inti- 
mate and eternal union, such a union as 
neither death, nor life, nor anything whatso- 
ever can destroy. 

2. Zeal for our 'Lord's Glory. 

It is certainly most reasonable that, since 
the Eternal Word became incarnate, and in 
his incarnation humbled himself and made use 
of his divinity and his humanity to exalt us, 
we should do all in our power to procure for 
him all the glory we can. The Greek Fathers 
call this mystery a Descent, because in it the 
Son of God descended infinitely low, and 
caused us to ascend infinitely high ; they also 
call it a Condescension, because in it he ex- 
ercised unspeakable goodness and condescen- 
sion in order to accommodate himself to us ; 
he assumed our degradation in order to give 
us his glory ; he united himself to our poverty 
to fill us with his riches, and he charged him- 
self with our miseries to give us a share in his 
felicity. 



y6 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

This is why, sensibly touched by this most 
admirable abasement, and completely won by 
this incomparable desire of our Lord for our 
glory, we should conceive a burning zeal for 
his, and by all possible means endeavor to 
procure him honor. We should breathe only 
his praises, and should refer to them all our 
thoughts, all our affections, all our plans, all 
our words, and all our works. We should 
consecrate our souls and bodies to his glory, 
employing for it all our strength, using and 
consuming ourselves for it, so as to recognize 
in some degree, although infinitely unequal, 
the prodigious things he has done, and the 
unutterable sufferings he has endured in order 
to raise us from the dust and place us in a 
state of glory and honor. 

Besides we are bound to apply ourselves 
with all our powers to glorify God. God's 
glory is the end of the incarnation of the 
Eternal Word, and, in general, the end of all 
that God does ; because his will cannot pro- 
pose as the last end of all his works anything 
but his exterior honor and the glory he can 
receive from his creatures, this being the thing 
that of all outside himself is best. Conse- 
quently, God's glory is the end of our creation 
and preservation ; save for it we would still be 



For the Season of Advent. jj 

in nothingness, therefore we ought to refer to 
it ail that we are, since we exist only for it. 

Our Lord traced for us the model in his own 
person, having from the moment of his con- 
ception until his death acted incessantly for 
this end, whence he said : "I honor my Fa- 
ther. . . I seek not my own glory. . . I 
have glorified thee on the earth." (Jno. viii. 
49 ; xvii. 4.) I glorify my Father, to his glory 
I refer all my thoughts, all my affections, all 
mv words, and all mv works ; I seek not mv own 
glory. And still, now in the highest heaven, 
he refers to the same intention of God's cdorv, 
and he will for all eternity, his body, his soul, 
all that he does and all that he will ever do ; 
and with him, and in him, all men and all 
creatures who are in a certain manner con- 
tained, purified, sanctified, and deified in his 
sacred humanity ; and moreover, he offers 
them all for the same intention, out of himself 
and in themselves, as things that belong to 
him. 

Let us then follow this perfect model, and,, 
in order to do so, let us unite ourselves inti- 
mately and inseparably with Jesus Christ by 
sanctifying grace, by acts of faith, hope, and 
charity, by desires and petitions, as to the 
first cause, the general and only instrument 



y 8 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

of all the exterior glory offered to the Divini- 
ty, for this purpose making ourselves but one 
with him, as we are in reality, since we have 
the honor to be members of a body of which 
he is the Head. 

Let us spiritually unite our souls to his soul, 
our faculties to his faculties, our thoughts to 
his thoughts, our affections to his affections, 
our words to his words, our looks, our steps, 
our motions, and all our actions to his which 
are infinitely honorable to God, so that all 
that belongs to us may take from all that be- 
longs to him a divine lustre and coloring. 

Let us fill ourselves with his spirit, which is 
a spirit of pure devotion to the glory of God, 
since his incarnation, his birth, his life, his 
death, and all his mysteries, have no other 
end than God's glory. 

Let us very frequently offer him, as a trea- 
sure that belongs to us, to God, to glorify 
God in every manner and as much as he merits. 
Let us also pray him to offer us with himself, 
as one of his own possessions, for God's glory, 
and in himself as being contained in him. 

Still more, let us very frequently offer our- 
selves for the honor and praise of God with 
God himself. To understand what I mean, 
we must first know that God is our Creator 



For the Season of Advent. 79 

who has formed our bodies and souls. David 
says : " He made us, and not we ourselves." 
(Ps. xcix. 3.) We also learn this from reason 
and experience, which teach us that nothing" 
can make itself. Secondly, that he is our pre- 
server who not only has given us being - , but 
who preserves it to us ; and as preservation 
differs from first production only in some little 
formalities, and is in substance and essence 
the first production persevered in and a con- 
tinued creation that follows its first plan, as 
the life of our body is only a perpetual flow of 
life from the soul over it ; so to say that God 
preserves us is only to say that he constantly 
communicates being to us, and always pro- 
duces our bodies and souls, and produces them 
in such or such a manner — a healthy body, an 
infirm or sickly one ; a robust, weak, beautiful, 
or ugly body ; a body of a melancholy, bilious, 
or other temperament ; a soul with much, or 
with little, or with no talent, memory, judg- 
ment; a soul sometimes gay, sometimes sad, 
now consoled, then desolate, afflicted, pained, 
tempted, and with such and such a species of 
temptation. God creates our souls and bodies 
in these different dispositions, and sometimes 
in several different ways in one day. 

Thirdly, it must be carefully remarked that 



80 Practice of Union zvitJi Our Lord 

God makes our bodies and souls thus for his 
own glory, and produces them in these dif- 
ferent states in order to procure to himself by 
means of each of these different dispositions 
a particular kind of honor which he could not 
derive from any other. This is why, if you 
tell me that if you had more talents, more 
judgment, more capacity than God has given 
you, if your body were stronger and healthier 
than it is, you would in your opinion render 
him more honor than w r ith the body and mind 
you have ; I will reply that truly you might 
with a different body and mind render honor 
to God, but not the kind of honor he desires 
from you, which only your body and your 
mind just as you possess them can render him. 
An artisan uses instruments of different sizes 
and shapes .to fashion his works, and a small 
and bent instrument will not do what a large 
and straight one will, but w r ill be good for some 
other part of the work. In embroidery the 
different silks used to form a flower all produce 
effect, each according to its particular color 
and shade ; and in music, the different tones 
produce harmony, but each in its own particu- 
lar manner. Just so a healthy body and a 
sick body, a great mind and an inferior one, a 
rich man and a poor man, and, in general, all 



For the Season of Advent. 8 1 

creatures in the universe in their marvelous 
diversity, serve God in their different ways, 
and each in its own way renders him an honor 
which it alone can render him. 

We know very well that God has created 
us for his glory and our own beatitude, but we 
are ignorant of what particular glory -he re- 
quires frorri us, and to what degree of beatitude 
he has designed to raise us, whether it be to a 
place in the choir of angels of the lowest 
order, or among the archangels, or with the 
highest seraphim. And further, w r e know not 
by what particular means we are to execute 
these two great works of the glory of God and 
our own beatitude ; God alone knows this ; he 
alone knows in what manner he desires to be 
served and glorified in you and by you, and to 
what measure of grace and happiness he has 
predestined you ; and likewise, he alone knows 
by what means you are to reach it. The only 
means capable of procuring him that particular 
glory he desires and expects from you, and of 
bringing you to the degree of grace, perfec- 
tion, and eternal felicity he has assigned you, 
are your body and soul just as he has made 
them, the dispositions of light or of darkness, 
of consolation or of desolation, of unction or 
of dryness, of peace or of disquiet and temp- 



82 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

tation, in which he puts you to-day, at this 
hour and moment, and the present condition, 
office, and employment to which he has called 
you. 

Therefore, as God truly present and dwell- 
ing in us, constantly creates for his own glory 
our bodies and souls in all the various disposi- 
tions of nature and grace wherein they are at 
each moment, and refers them to his honor 
and praise, thus making for himself in us per- 
petual sacrifices, and taking infinite compla- 
cency in all these dispositions because he 
creates them, according to the words of the 
Prophet king : " The Lord shall rejoice in his 
works," (Ps. ciii. 31) and because in their vari- 
eties they are the true and only means by 
which he gains from us the particular honor 
he requires at that moment ; we should unite 
ourselves to him dwelling in us, and should, 
as it were, second him, agreeing to all that he 
does in us for his glory and with him taking 
pleasure in it, esteeming ourselves happy to 
be able to concur with him in so noble a de- 
sign, and very frequently referring our bodies 
and souls in all their states to his honor. 

Let us in this imitate our Lord in whom the 
Divinity, sanctifying and deifying the human- 
ity by its personal union with it, consecrated 



For the Season of Advent. 83 

and applied it to its own glory ; and that 
most sacred humanity referred to and em- 
ployed for the same end without any intermis- 
sion, its soul, its body, its essence, its faculties, 
its operations, and its whole being. 

The last thing that we must understand is 
the practice of this divine glorification in us 
and by us. 

It consists, first, in accepting and bearing 
with a great desire and an ardent zeal for 
God's glory, all the dispositions and changes 
that he produces in us, in our bodies and 
souls, in whatsoever manner they may come to 
us. 

Secondly, in accepting and bearing them in 
a spirit of faith, with a sentiment of esteem 
and approbation of his will ; with submission, 
with humility and great respect, with patience 
and fortitude, with silence, with love, and with 

joy- 
Thirdly, in referring very frequently during 
the day our body and soul, our being, our 
powers, our actions, and all that we are to 
God's glory, uniting ourselves to him in order 
that he in us may refer them to that end, im- 
itating the example our Lord has given us of 
this. 

The more frequently, the more perfectly, 



84 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

that is, with the more zeal, the more faith, 
and the more of the other virtues, we shall do 
this, the more excellently we shall glorify 
God and the greater honor we shall render 
him. 

In conclusion, remember that as God's will 
is always invariably fixed to desire and claim 
his glory, the shortest, easiest, and surest way 
of glorifying God is to will precisely all that 
he wills ; and in proportion as we do this with 
more or less resignation, abandonment, and 
destruction of our own will, the glory we ren- 
der to God will be greater or less. 

j. Self -Abasement. 

Our Lord annihilated himself in order to 
unite himself to us and to raise us to the de- 
gree of honor we now enjoy. " Seme tip sum 
cxinanivit" says St. Paul. Therefore, let us 
annihilate ourselves for him, let us labor to 
destroy and annihilate in us all that is ever so 
slightly contrary to his glory and our perfec- 
tion ; let us annihilate our spirit, our judg- 
ment, our will, our desires, our inclinations 
and humors, and let us undertake this task 
courageously and faithfully. And truly, if he 
who is All and Sovereign Majesty was pleased 
to become nothing, and to humble himself 



For the Season of Advent. 85 

infinitely that he might make us something 
great and exalted, we who intrinsically are 
nothing, are under all imaginable obligations 
to abase and annihilate ourselves for him, at 
least so far as nothing can abase itself. To 
incite you to this, keep continually in your 
mind, and very frequently on your lips, these 
words, %i semetipsnm exinanivit" he debased 
himself, he annihilated himself. 



IV.— MEDITATIONS. 

V.— READING. 

(Under these two headings Father Saint- 
Jure suggests matter for meditation and read- 
ing,, taken from pious books of his own com- 
position, or from other authors ; but as they 
are not all easily to be found in English, we 
shall generally omit what comes under these 
titles.) 

VI.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

These verses, together with those scattered 
through our pages, may serve to fix the mys- 
tery in our memories, to bind our spirits to it, 
and to help us to inhale our Lord and draw 
him into us ; for this reason we should during 



86 Practice of Union with Our Lord. 

the day frequently repeat them, now one, now 
another, according to our dispositions. 

,v The Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among us." (Jno. i. 14.) These words should 
be repeated with faith, love, and reverence, 
and sometimes with bended knee as the Church 
requires of her priests when they repeat them 
in the Mass. 

u Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful 
of him ? or the son of man, that thou visitest 
him ?" (Ps. cxliii. 3.) Lord, what is man that 
thou shouldst make thyself known to him, 
even visibly and in his own nature ? And the 
son of man that thou shouldst have regard to 
him ? If thou consultest thy own knowledge 
thou wilt find that man is only vanity, homo 
vanitati siniilis f actus est. 

" Semctipsum exinanivit, he emptied him- 
self." (Philipp. ii. 7.) He annihilated himself. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PRACTICE OF UNION WITH OUR LORD JESUS 
CHRIST FROM CHRISTMAS TO LENT. 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

The practice for this season will have for 
its subject the mysteries of our Lord's nativi- 
ty, his circumcision, the adoration of the kings, 
the offering his holy Mother made of him to 
God his Father in the temple, his flight into 
Egypt and his dwelling there, and all his hid- 
den life. 

We must regard with the eyes of faith, with 
a simple and attentive gaze, our Lord in the 
stable, laid in the manger upon the straw, 
with our Lady and St. Joseph and an ox and 
an ass for his company ; we must behold him 
suffering the wound of a sharp knife and testi- 
fying the violence of his pain by his tears ; 
and so on, we must study him in the other 
mysteries of this season. 

II.— THE AFFECTIONS. 

The affections and interior acts we should 
conceive toward our Lord in these sacred 
mysteries are the same that moved the shep- 



88 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

herds and the royal magi ; and, to seek still 
more perfect models of these sentiments, the 
same that filled the hearts of our Lady and 
St. Joseph. 

/. Faith. 

Our first sentiment should be a lively faith 
that this little Child is the true God, that 
beneath this lowliness and this mean appear- 
ance is concealed the full glory of the Divin- 
ity, that under this feebleness lies the strength 
of the Omnipotent, under this silence the 
Eternal Word and the wisdom of the Father ; 
that in this little child, weeping and shivering 
with cold, is contained the joy of the angels 
and of all the blessed, and in this little crea- 
ture the Creator of the universe. 

Thus, looking at this Child in the manger 
on the straw, we will not confine our gaze to 
his flesh nor to his miserable surroundings, but, 
enlightened by a strong faith, we will, with 
piercing glance, penetrate the depths of the 
mystery and discover there the Divinity re- 
splendent with glory, though enveloped with 
the cloud of this sacred humanity, and we 
Will exclaim with St. Thomas, but in a spirit 
of more perfect faith : " Dominns mens ct Dens 
metis — My Lord and my God !" (jno. xx. 28.) 



From Christmas to Lent. 89 

Yes, this little Child is my God, and I desire 
no other besides him, even as there is no other. 
Yes, this little Child is my God, my true and 
legitimate Lord ; this Child who weeps is 
my joy and my beatitude ; this Child so poor 
and destitute of necessary things is all my 
treasure ; this Child so tender and feeble is all 
my strength ; this Child so humiliated and 
abased is my sovereign glory ; this Child who 
utters not a word is my master and my wis- 
dom ; this Child of a day is my Eternal Crea- 
tor : Dominus mens et Dens mens — he is my 
Lord and my God. 

2. Adoration. 

After the act of faith we must make an act 
of adoration. This will naturally and easily 
follow the act of faith ; when you firmly be- 
lieve that a person to whom you are presented 
is your king, this belief immediately produces 
in your mind an impression of respect for his 
person, and impels you to bow profoundly 
before him ; you find no difficulty in doing 
this, because it appears to you so just and 
reasonable. After your act of faith you will 
experience the same reverence toward our 
Lord, and you will adore him with the Blessed 
Virgin, with St. Joseph, with the magi, and 



90 Practice of Uviion with Our Lord 

with the angels who received, St. Paul says, 
the command to adore him at the moments 
of his incarnation and his birth. And again, 
when he bringeth in the first-begotten into 
the world, he saith : " And let all the angels 
of God adore him." (Heb. i. 6.) 

If the Seraphim and Cherubim adore him, 
and through reverence bow down before his 
majesty, how much more reason have not we 
who are but dust, and besides are under far 
greater obligations to our Lord than the 
angels are, since, as the apostle says, he did 
not take their nature to save them, but ours 
to save us — how much more reason have not 
we to adore him, to humble and abase and 
annihilate ourselves in his presence ? There- 
fore, let us say to him : 

I adore thee, O little Child and great God ; 
I adore and honor thee in union with the 
Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, the magi, and the 
angels, with sentiments of the deepest respect 
and profoundest reverence I am capable of. 
And as the angels adore thee in heaven in the 
bosom of thy Father and on the throne of thy 
glory, with humiliations and abasements that 
exceed our thoughts and words, I adore thee 
in the crib and on the bosom of thy Mother, 



From Christmas to Lent. 91 

with, at least in desire, the same respect and 
submission. 

3. Admiration. 

It is a spectacle worthy of extreme admira- 
tion to see the Eternal the child of a day, 
the Immense reduced to limits, the Impassible 
suffering, the Immortal subject to death, the 
Rich needy, Joy weeping, Beatitude miser- 
able, Speech dumb, Light unillumined, 
Authority submissive, Wisdom taught, Power 
supported, and God, before whose Majesty 
the Seraphim and Cherubim are but atoms, 
lying in a manger upon straw between two 
animals. 

St. Bernard, beholding the sight, cries out : 
" Who will not admire, and who can suffi- 
ciently admire a thing so admirable and 
strange ? God eternal, Son of the Most High, 
begotten before ages, is born a little Child." 
And the prophet Habacuc, fainting from 
astonishment, says to this Child: "Lord, I 
have considered thy works and was afraid." 
(Habac. hi. 2.) Seeing thee not in heaven 
among the angels, but in a stable between 
two animals. 

4. Gratitude. 

Words are inadequate to express how much 
gratitude we owe our Lord for having come 



92 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

down to earth for our sake and placed him- 
self as we see him in the stable. He said of 
himself, M I came forth from the Father, and 
am come into the world." (Jno. xvi. 28.) Be- 
hold two terms, two places, two conditions, 
widely different — that he left, the bosom of 
the Father, the splendor of glory, majesty 
adored by angels, the state of infinite beati- 
tude — and that to which he came, a stable, 
a manger, poverty, contempt, and misery ! 
When we think of St. Alexis whom the 
Church calls the most noble of Romans, 
when we think of him in his father's house 
abundantly provided with all his heart could 
desire, and on his marriage-day loaded with 
favors and honor, and then a few years later 
sleeping under the steps of his father's palace, 
unknown, poor, scorned, and mocked by his 
own servants, we are greatly surprised to see 
the same person voluntarily in two such 
different conditions. But in our Lord we see 
a change still more extraordinary, and which 
caused his Father to* say by the prophet 
Abdias : "Behold I have made thee small 
among the nations. Thou art exceeding con- 
temptible." (Abd. i. 2.) 

This change accepted for our sake by the 
Son of God, demands in return a most un- 



From Christmas to Lent. 93 

bounded gratitude. If a king should come 
from the ends of the earth to visit you, you 
would consider yourself under obligations to 
thank him ; and if in coming he had suffered 
very much, you would feel yourself under still 
greater obligations ; and if he came to deliver 
you from most serious evils that were afflicting 
you, and to bestow upon you all sorts of 
favors, you would deem yourself less than the 
brutes if you were not overwhelmed with 
gratitude. Oh ! what sentiments of gratitude 
ought we then to have toward our Lord ! 
what thanksgivings we should offer him, since 
he is far more exalted than any king, and 
comes from a much greater distance than the 
ends of the earth, and endures excessive 
sufferings in order to deliver us from our evils 
and to enrich us with blessings that are in- 
comparably more precious than those any 
earthly king could bestow ! 

5. Love for our Lord. 

The mere sight of what takes place in the 
stable should fire our hearts with love for our 
Lord. God, knowing that so long as he re- 
mained invisible and insensible, man, who in 
his operations depends greatly upon the 
senses, would always have much difficulty in 



94 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

loving him, to take away this difficulty and 
remove all the obstacles to the love he re- 
quires of man, made himself visible and sen- 
sible in the most lovable and charming manner 
possible, by becoming a man like unto us ; he 
made himself our Brother and our Spouse, 
titles most powerful to attract and oblige us 
to love. 

What is more, God became a creature, God 
is a little child, God lies upon the straw be- 
tween two animals, God is miserable, and for 
us ! After that we do not love him ? Has 
not St. Paul good reason to say : " If any man 
love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be 
anathema?" (i Cor. xvi. 22.) If any one after 
such obligations does not love our Lord, let 
him be anathema. 

And the mark of the sinner that he takes in 
his circumcision, and the precious blood that 
he painfully spills in that mystery, and with 
such extreme ignominy, and so soon ! Does 
not this force us to love him ? St. Bernard ex- 
claims in admiration : " The Son of God found 
himself on the day of his birth less than the 
angels, because he found himself man ; this is 
wonderful. But on the day of his circumcision 
I see something more admirable and more 
astonishing still, because in that mystery he 



From Christmas to Lent. 95 

made himself less than the angels by taking, 
besides the nature of man, the form of sinful 
man." (Serm. 3, de Circumcis.) Thus Holy 
Church says on the feast of the Circumcision : 
rt Propter nimiam cJiaritatem stiam, qua dilexit 
110s Dens, Filium suum nisit in similitndinem 
earuis peccati. On account of the excessive 
charity with which he loved us, God sent his 
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." 

Our Lord, both as God and man, was abso- 
lutely impeccable, and there is nothing so 
contrary to God as sin. Riches are certainly 
opposed to poverty, greatness to littleness, 
joy to sorrow, and life to death ; but sin is 
still more opposed to God. God easily brought 
together and united in his person those first 
things, though so different from him ; but he 
could not do the same with the last — sin. We 
have seen him at once rich and poor, great 
and small, happy and miserable, immortal and 
subject to death ; but we never saw him holy 
and a sinner. Hence, the more sin is contrary 
to him and the more he is the enemy of sin, 
the more plainly he has declared the excess 
of his love for us by deigning to take the mark 
of sin, and doing so willingly and lovingly in 
the desire rather to compromise his own honor 
than not remedy our ills. 



96 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

Truly, it is going very far in the way of love 
that the Son of God should not be content to 
prove his affection for us by becoming man, 
by being born a little child, poor, contemned, 
and subject to every discomfort ; but that he 
should desire to appear that which he is not, 
and which he can never be, a sinner, and to 
bear the vile character and the shameful mark 
of sin, which he holds in horror and cannot 
endure. Being unable to be a sinner, for our 
salvation he assumes the appearance of one. 
Oh ! what love, and what benevolence ! 

Who can describe the good will and the 
ardent affection with which in the temple he 
offered himself to God his Father for us, and 
offered himself to be scourged, crowned with 
thorns, and crucified ? What a wonderful 
proof of love thus to give himself to us, and 
to allow us to possess him in exchange for so 
little, for the sigh of a repentant heart, for a 
morsel of bread and a cup of cold water given 
to a beggar ! while to purchase and possess 
us, though there is no comparison between 
his value and our worthlessness, he gave all 
his blood and sacrificed his life, so great was 
his desire to give himself to us and to win us 
to him ! 

All these proofs our Lord has given us of 



From Christmas to Lent. 97 

his love, demand of us for him all the love our 
hearts are capable of. The prophet Isaiah 
said to him that if he should make himself 
man and should descend to such abasements 
for us, and should work those miracles of love 
that are seen in his nativity, the most obsti- 
nate would be unable to withstand his efforts, 
but would surely melt into tears ; the haugh- 
tiest spirits would humble themselves, hearts 
of stone would break, and the coldest souls 
would enkindle with his love with so much 
the more ardor as he lowered himself for them 
to depths so unworthy of his Majesty. " The 
mountains would melt away at thy presence, 
they would melt as at the burning of fire ; 
the waters would burn with fire ; when thou 
shalt do wonderful things we shall not bear 
them." (Is. lxiv. I, 2, 3.) "The more he 
abased himself for me," says St. Bernard, 
"the dearer he is and the more I love him, 
because he has made himself more amiable." 
(Serm. 1, in Ephiph.) 

St. Paul, to move us to this love, says that 
"The goodness and kindness of God our 
Saviour appeared," (Tit. iii. 4) when, to show 
his love for men, he appeared to them clothed 
with their nature, lying in a manger, and bear- 
ing the mark cf sin. Commenting upon which 



98 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

words of the apostle, St. Bernard adds : " How 
could our Lord display more plainly his good- 
ness than by uniting himself with my flesh ? 
Was -there a means of showing more clearly 
his mercy than by assuming our miseries ? 
And what more certain proof of his benev- 
olence could he give than to reciuce him- 
self, the Word of God, for our sake, to the 
condition ot the grass of the field ? " 

Who that believes these truths and reflects 
upon them with any degree of attention, can 
fail to consider himself under positive obliga- 
tions to love our Lord with all his heart, and 
to prove his love by deeds, just as our Lord 
proved his for us, not by words, but by 
wondrous works ? 

God the Father, on the day wheri his Son 
was presented to him in the temple in his 
own name and in ours, and in that of all the 
human race, gave him back to his holy 
Mother, to let us know that it is to her he 
gives him, that she must give him to us, that 
to her we must address ourselves if we will 
have him, that without her he shall never be 
possessed by us. To her, therefore, we are 
indebted for Jesus Christ, since she is his 
Mother, ana without her consent to the pro-. 
posal the Archangel Gabriel made her in 



From Christmas to Lent. 99 

God's name, on the day of the Annunciation, 
a consent she was free to give or to refuse, 
we would never have obtained him, and 
consequently we would never have had a 
a Saviour nor a salvation. On the feast 
of the Purification she receives him anew 
from God the Father in order to again give 
him to us. 

Therefore, we possess Jesus Christ, and in 
him all our happiness, only through the 
Blessed Virgin, and but for her he would not 
be ours. St. Bernard says: " God has so 
decreed that we can possess nothing that we 
do not receive from Mary's hands." Hence 
we must infer that w T e are also under infinite 
obligations to honor her, to love her, and to 
render her endless thanksgivings and every 
possible homage. 

We should make our offering of the Son to 
God the Father in the dispositions of the 
Blessed Virgin, with a most profound interior 
and exterior humility, with singular reverence, 
with great devotion, with cordial tenderness, 
with unspeakable gratitude for having given 
him to us, with ardent zeal for his glory, and 
with all other affections ; w r e should offer him 
as the dearest and most precious thing we 
possess, to be our mediator with the Father, 



IOO Practice of Unio7i with Our Lord 

our advocate, our pledge, our ransom, our 
sacrifice of glorification to procure infinite 
glory to God, our sacrifice of propitiation to 
obtain the pardon of our sins, our eucharistic 
sacrifice to thank him for his benefits, and our 
sacrifice of impetration to obtain fresh benefits, 
in fine, to be before the throne of God our 
all. 

God the Father having received his Son 
from us, gives him .back to us to be our 
Saviour, our Redeemer, our protector, our 
consoler, our physician, our model, our 
strength, our wisdom, our riches, our glory, 
our peace, our joy, and our all. "Christ is 
all, and in all," says St. Paul. fColoss. 
iii. 2.) 

Our life should be a continual exercise of 
offering and giving with these sentiments, 
Jesus Christ to God his Father, and of receiv- 
ing him from God ; and as he is given to us 
with infinite love, let us receive him with most 
ardent love. 

Then, enjoying your happiness and the in- 
estimable favor that is done you, with the 
holy old man Simeon, take the dear child in 
your arms, and gazing upon him with faith, 
respect, gratitude, joy, hope, and love, remem- 
ber that even as that holy old man could not 






From Christmas to Lent. ioi 

die until he had first seen Jesus Christ accord- 
ing to the promise he received from the Holy 
Ghost : " He had received an answer from the 
Holy Ghost, that he should not see death 
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord ;" 
(Luke ii. 26,) and as he sang : " Nunc dimittis 
servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum 
in pace ; now thou dost dismiss thy servant, 
O Lord, according to thy word in peace," 
(lb. ii. 29,) only when he held him in his arms 
pressed close to his heart ; so it is impossible 
for you to die to your vices, to your bad incli- 
nations and your corrupt nature, or to sing 
your nunc dimittis, that is, to bid a last fare- 
well to them all, and to enjoy the peace of 
the children of God and true rest of spirit, 
until you hold Jesus Christ in your arms, 
which will only be when you are united eter- 
nally and intimately with him, in your under- 
standing by meditating upon his mysteries, 
and in your will by loving him. 

i 6. Joy. 

If the possession of a good be the legitimate 
object of joy, a joy that goes on increasing in 
proportion as the good is greater and the pos- 
session of it more secure, our Lord's nativity 
should be to us a cause of inexpressible joy on 



102 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

account of the infinite blessings it brings us, 
and which are so securely ours that no one in 
all the world can steal them away without 
our consent.* 

Isaiah, referring to this mystery, says : 
•'The people that walked in darkness have 
seen a great light ; to them that dwelt in the 
region of the shadow of death, light is risen." 
(Is. ix. 2.) They that were shrouded in dark- 
ness and that fainted with weariness in the 
regions of death, found the day in their midst 
when the Sun of Justice who came to give 
them life was born. 

At the rising of this Sun the angel said to 
the shepherds : " Behold I bring you good 
tidings of great joy that shall be to all the 
people ; for this day is born to you a Saviour 
who is Christ the Lord." (Luke ii. 10, n.) 
There is born to you, to you who w^ere con- 
demned and lost, a Saviour ; to you who were t 
sold, a Redeemer ; to you who were captives, 
a liberator ; to you w 7 ho w r ere sick, a physi- 
cian ; to you who were afflicted, a consoler, 
and the One who will deliver you from all 
evils and bestow upon you every blessing. 

" Let us rejoiee, my brethren," says St. Leo, 
•'because our Saviour is born this day; for 



From Christmas to Lent. 103 

there is no place for sadness where life has 
birth." (Serm. 1, in Nat. Dom.) 

Let us conclude with the sweet and forcible 
words of the eloquent St. Bernard : " We have 
heard in our land a glad voice, a voice of ex- 
ultation and salvation has resounded in the 
tents of sinners ; we have heard a good word, 
a word of consolation that should cause us 
great joy, and that is worthy of being well 
received. 

"Praise God with joy and gladness, O ye 
mountains ! and you, O ye forests and woods, 
shake your branches as though clapping your 
hands in the presence of the Lord because he 
is come ! Hearken, ye heavens, and thou, O 
earth, lend thine ear, and let all creatures in 
the universe break forth into canticles of won- 
der and thanksgiving ! But thou, O man, 
sing louder still, for Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God, is born in Bethlehem of Juda ! 

"Is there a heart so hard as not to be 
melted by the sweetness of these words ? 
What more welcome news could be brought 
to us ? What more agreeable could be told 
us ? When has the world ever heard, or seen, 
or received the like ? Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God, is born in Bethlehem of Juda ! O short 
sentence, but filled with heavenly delight." 



104 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

(Serm. I, in Vigil. Nat. Dom.) Thus St. Ber- 
nard discourses on the birth of our Lord, and 
the great cause of joy which it should be 'to 
us. Let us, then, rejoice, but in a holy man- 
ner, and so let us accomplish what the angel 
said to the shepherds, and to us in their 
persons 

7. Hope. 

As these reasons well considered are suffi- 
cient to fill our hearts with a torrent of delight, 
they should also fill them with a great hope 
in our Lord as the remedy for all our ills. It 
is true we have many, both spiritual and cor- 
poral ; . sin has loaded us down with them ; 
still, since the coming of our Lord they have 
ceased .to be ills, because we have in him a 
powerful remedy for them, which, instead of 
longer afflicting ourselves, we should think 
cnly of making use of. If a person who is 
worth a hundred millions of dollars owes five 
cents, he does not worry about his debt, be- 
cause he knows he has most ample means 
with which to discharge it. The means which 
we possess in Jesus Christ for deliverance from 
all our miseries are incomparably more ample. 
Therefore the angel says to us as well as to 
the shepherds : " Fear not, for this day is born 



From Christmas to Lent. 105 

to you a Saviour who is Christ the Lord." 
(Luke ii. 10.) He is called Jesus, that is 
Saviour, because, as the angel explained to 
St. Joseph, he will save men and deliver them 
from their sins, and consequently from all their 
miseries, of which their sins are the true and 
only causes. This divine Saviour is born for 
us ; he is ours. " A Child is born to us, and a 
Son is given to us," says the prophet Isaiah. 
(Is. ix. 6.) A little Child is born for our sal- 
vation, the Son of God is given to us by his 
Father to ransom us from our captivity and to 
enrich us with all his treasures. 

Our Lord himself says : " God so loved the 
world as to give his only begotten Son." 
(Jno. iii. 16.) God loved men to such a 
degree that he gave them his Son. The word 
give is used, not lend, nor sell, nor exchange ; 
by the absolute title of gift Jesus Christ is 
ours, he belongs to us, he is our property, 
and in such a way that there is nothing we 
possess more entirely than we do him ; no 
power, neither of angels, nor of men, nor of 
demons, can take him from us without our 
consent ; God himself, omnipotent as he is, 
cannot deprive us of him, because he has 
given him to us, and God's gifts are on his 
part irrevocable. 



106 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

Our Lord being ours, all his treasures belong 
to us, since, according to a just rule, the 
accessory follows the principal ; he who gives 
the tree, gives likewise the fruit. Hence St. 
Paul having said that God gave us his Son, 
adds : " How hath he not also, with him, 
given us all things?" (Rom. viii. 32.) Thus 
it is that we have in Jesus Christ, who is Lord 
of the whole universe, a superabundant re- 
medy for all our miseries, and we are infinitely 
enriched in him and by him. " You are filled 
in him who is the head of all principality and 
power." (Coloss. ii. 10.) "In all things you 
are made rich in him, so that nothing is want- 
ing to you in any grace, (r Cor. i. 5, 7.) 

From this we must be certain that our 
Lord is our chief hope, that he is the efficacious 
remedy for all our miseries, the cure for all 
our ills, the sovereign balm for all our wounds, 
and the true consolation for all our sorrows. 
Therefore we must have recourse to him in 
all our necessities, we must go to him freely, 
frankly, and with the simplicity and confidence 
of a child, of a brother, and of a friend. If 
we go in this spirit, he will not fail to deliver 
us from the evils that afflict us ; or, if deliver- 
ance be not for our good, he will give us 
what will be much better, patience, resig- 



From Christmas to Lent. 107 

nation, and strength to bear our burdens to 
the end. 

Look at our Lord in his crib as upon one of 
the thrones of his mercy, and say to him : 
O dear and divine Infant ! thou art my 
hope ; thou, the only Son of God, the 
omnipotent Creator of the universe, the 
treasury of all blessings, thou art my hope, 
thou art my refuge, my support, and my 
whole confidence. Thou hast taken my flesh 
to remedy its infirmities and weaknesses ; 
thou hast taken my soul to release it from its 
sins and deliver it from all the defects to 
which it is subject ; thou hast taken poverty 
to make me look to thee for aid in my tem- 
poral necessities ; I behold thee shedding 
tears because thou dost desire to wipe mine 
away and to console me in my sorrows. O 
divine Infant ! Thou art indeed my sweetest 
hope! 

8. Sorrow for our sins. 

If the birth of our Lord is a mystery of 
joy, it is also a mystery of sadness ; and if the 
angel said that he announced^ a subject of 
great joy, he might have added that he gave 
us a motive of lively sorrow for our sins. 
Truly, could there be anything more capable 



io8 Practice of Union zvitli Our Lord 

of exciting in our hearts an intense regret for 
our sins, than the frightful extremity to which 
for their atonement we have reduced the 
divine Majesty? than a sight of the Son of 
God, the Creator of heaven and earth, becom- 
ing a creature, becoming a man, a miserable 
man ? than to behold him born in a stable, 
laid in a crib between two animals, poor, 
contemned, and destitute of every comfort ? 
than to see God a little child, God lying upon 
the straw, God weeping, God chilled by the 
cold, in order to appease the anger of the 
Father irritated, against us, to satisfy the 
divine justice and pay our debts ? We may say 
to him in the words of the prophet Abdias, 
though using them in a different sense : 
"Behold I have made thee small among the 
nations ; thou art exceeding contemptible." 
(Abd. 2.) Alas ! Why are w r e so unfortunate 
as to have reduced God to this ? 

If it w r ere necessary for the expiation of a 
crime committed by one of the people that 
the king,. the queen, the princes, and all the 
chief personages of a kingdom, should weep 
bitterly, should traverse the streets with 
naked feet and clothed in sackcloth, and 
should fast on bread and water for an entire 
year, and the offender, witnessing all, were 



From Cliristmas to Lent. 109 

not sorry for his fault, would it not be a sign 
that he was out of, his senses ? How then can 
we, if we have our reason, not regret our 
sins which have brought Infinite Majesty to 
the strange necessity of covering itself with 
the sackcloth of our mortality, of being born; 
in a stable like a beast, and of suffering all 
that it has ? 

This is why we should testify to God ex- 
treme regret for our offences which have 
reduced him to such a lamentable state, and 
with all the earnestness of which we are 
capable should beg him to pardon them. As- 
suredly, as children easily forgive, this divine 
Infant will forgive us. 

p. Desires and Petitions. 

May our Lord be born in us, may he accom- 
plish in our hearts his spiritual circumcision, 
may he impress upon them his other mysteries, 
may he give us the grace and spirit of those 
mysteries ! such should be our aspiration, and 
to attain it we should seek to draw him into 
us in all his states. 

It is necessary that the birth of our Lord,, 
his circumcision, his poverty, the- contradic- 
tions, the scorn, the persecutions, and the 

other characteristics of his life on earth, should 
10 



1 1 o Practice of Union with Our Lord 

be reproduced in his elect while they are pil- 
grims here below. The gre-at St. Leo, speak- 
ing of the birth of Christ, says : " The genera- 
tion of Jesus Christ is the generation of all 
Christians, the birth of the head is the birth 
of the body ; even as w r e have been crucified 
with our Lord in his passion, have risen with 
him in his 'resurrection, and have ascended 
with him to the right hand of God his Father 
■in his ascension, w r e were born with him in his 
birth." This is to be understood not only of 
the natural and moral union which we have 
with our Lord, but still further and more par- 
ticularly of the care we should take to engrave 
upon both our interior and exterior the virtues 
and features of his mysteries. We must have 
great desires for this and must pray for it 
earnestly and continually, and thereby attract 
our Lord into our souls to produce this effect 
in them. 

III.— THE VIRTUES. 

7. Professed imitation of onr Lord. 

One of the chief reasons w r hy the Son of 
God was pleased to clothe himself with a 
human nature and dwell visibly among men, 
was to teach them the just value of things 



From Christmas to Lent. 1 1 1 

which they were very ignorant of, and the 
road to salvation which they traveled but 
blindly. This office belonged to him more 
particularly than to the Father or the Holy 
Ghost, because he is by his personal perfection 
uncreated wisdom and truth itself, and by his 
mercy incarnate wisdom, to which properly 
belongs the teaching office. For this reason 
the prophet Malachi calls him the Sun of 
Justice (Mai. iv. 2), who would by the rays of 
his example and words show justice to men ; 
that is to say, in the first place, what virtue 
and perfection are, and in the second place, 
the relative value of heaven and earth, the 
soul and the body, eternal and temporal 
blessings, riches and poverty, honor and op- 
probrium, prosperity and adversity, and the 
measure of esteem we should have for these 
things. And Christ, speaking of himself, calls 
himself the Light of the world : " I am the 
Light of the world." (Jno. viii. 12.) And 
again: " I am come a light into the world, 
that whosoever believeth in me may not re- 
main in darkness." (Jno. xii. 46.) I am come 
to make known to men what is true and what 
is false, what is good and what is bad, what is 
precious and what is vile, what should be 
carefully treasured and what should be scorn- 



1 1 2 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

ed and avoided. Behold why I have come. 
In another place he says : " Neither be ye 
called masters ; for one is your master, Christ." 
(Matt, xxiii. 10.) Be not ambitious to be 
called doctor and master ; for you have a 
doctor and a master, who is Jesus Christ. 

If Jesus Christ is the master and doctor, he 
must have a school and a chair. Where then 
is his school, where is his chair ? His school 
is the stable of Bethlehem ; the crib is the 
chair whence this divine Doctor, this admir- 
able Master teaches men and appoints their 
lessons. 

Yes, but from that chair he utters not a 
word. True ; but in his silence he speaks 
much, and even more than he could say in 
words, because his doctrine is not speculative 
but practical ; he has not come to teach us to 
talk well, but to do well, and this is learned 
much better from works than from words. As 
St. Bernard says : " He does not speak, his 
tongue is not yet loosened, for he is a child 
only just born ; nevertheless, all that is in 
him speaks, crys, and proclaims, his doctrine." 
(Serm. 3, Nat. Dom.) 

But what is his doctrine ? What does he 
teach ? He teaches things which are diamet- 
rically opposed to the opinions of men. The 



From Christmas to Lent. 113 

same Father says : "In omnibus ninndi judi- 
cium arguitur, stibvertihir, confictaturr (Serin. 
3, Nat. Dom.) The judgment which men form 
of the value of things, is condemned, over- 
thrown, and destroyed by all that is seen in 
our Lord in the crib. 

It should be remarked that men from the 
beginning of the world always esteemed riches 
more than poverty, honors rather than oppro- 
brium, pleasures before pains ; the Eternal 
Wisdom came to eradicate these old opinions, 
to make them understand that they were false, 
and to impress upon their minds very different 
ideas. It would have been just as easy for the 
Son of God to be born in a magnificent palace 
as in a stable, to be laid in a cradle of gold 
studded with diamonds as in a manger upon 
straw, to have kings and princes around him 
instead of an ox and an ass ; he could have 
chosen to be born in summer rather than in 
winter, at noon instead of at midnight, and in 
the midst of every comfort and luxury rather 
than in the greatest destitution. It was not 
his will ; on the contrary, he wished to appear 
to our eyes poor, contemned, weeping, and 
trembling with cold, in order to show us our 
wrong estimate of temporal things, and to 
give us a knowledge of their true value. It is 



114 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

as clear as the sunlight that God, wise and 
blessed as he is, would never have suffered"in 
his person so much pain and sorrow, and 
abased himself to the humiliations of the 
stable which were so unworthy of his divine 
Majesty, merely to deceive us and persuade 
us of a falsehood. 

Therefore let us stand firmlv, and although 
the world continues to persevere in its old 
opinions and errors, let us believe that it 
deceives itself, since Eternal truth thus assures 
us of it by his actions. Let us remember the 
argument of St. Bernard, to which there is no 
reply : " Either our Lord or the world is 
mistaken ; now it is impossible that Wisdom 
should be mistaken, otherwise it would not be 
wisdom ; hence we must conclude that it is 
the world that is mistaken. Still further, the 
prudence of the flesh is called in the Holy 
Scriptures folly, seeing that Jesus Christ who 
is uncreated and incarnate wisdom, and who 
consequently cannot be deceived, has chosen 
that which is most distasteful to the flesh, we 
must necessarily infer that it is the best and 
most useful for man and what he ought to 
choose ; and, that whosoever shall teach or 
persuade us of the contrary must be shunned 
as a seducer and a cheat." (Serm.de Nat.) 



From Christmas to Lent. 115 

I et us then picture to ourselves our Lord 
in the stable and in the manger as our divine 
Doctor and only Master in his school and in 
his pulpit, giving us his lessons and addressing 
to us by his works these words of Isaiah : 
"This is the way ; walk ye in it and go not 
aside, neither to the right hand, nor to the 
left." (Is. xxx. 20.) This is the way to sal- 
vation, to perfection, and to heaven ; if you 
turn from it, you will fall into precipices. 

Look upon him who is the King of kings to 
whom belongs the entire universe, and who is 
the Creator of all the riches of the world. He 
has been pleased to be born poor and in want 
of the most necessary things, to teach us how 
he esteems poverty more than riches, and 
how we, after his example, should esteem 
it ; to reprove us for our excessive affec- 
tion for earthly blessings, and our undue care 
to provide for our needs, and our impatience 
and murmurings when we have not all we 
desire. 

Look upon him who is the God of glory and 
the Infinite Majesty, in the state of extreme 
humiliation and annihilation to which he has 
reduced himself, to teach us humility, and to 
reprove our pride, our vanity, and our open 
and hidden seeking after the honors of the 



Il6 Practice of Unio7i zvitli Our Lord 

world and the esteem of men. Thinking" of 
this, St. Bernard asks : " How can it be that 
man, who is but a worm of the earth, has not 
courage to humble himself in presence of the 
divine Majesty so deeply humbled ?" (Serm. 
I, in Epiph.) 

See him, even while he governs with sover- 
eign authority and infinite wisdom all creatures 
in heaven and earth, see him in the arms of 
his Mother permitting her to move him, place 
him, handle him as she thinks best ; and this, 
that he may persuade us to allow ourselves to 
be guided without resistance by our superiors, 
and by his providence, in all things whether 
agreeable or not, and to reprove our want of 
submission. Behold the instructions which 
this heavenly Doctor gives us in the crib ! 
Behold what he teaches us ! 

It now remains for you who wish to pass for 
his disciples, to be so in reality, and, renounc- 
ing the false opinions of corrupt nature, to 
make open profession of believing his doctrine 
and putting it in practice. There is no im- 
posture to be feared in following Truth, no 
dishonor in imitating the Son of God ; on 
the contrary, we can do nothing which will 
be more useful and glorious to us ; and cer- 
tainly we cannot depart from the way of truth 



From Christmas to Lent. 117 

without entering into that of deceit, nor can 
we leave wisdom without falling into folly. 

2. Contempt of the World. 

What we are about to remark will confirm 
what we have just said. It is a strange thing 
to see the extreme contempt which our Lord 
expressed for all earthly grandeur, and how at 
his first entrance into the world, at the first 
step he takes, he tramples under foot all that 
men esteem and admire, honors, riches, repu- 
tation, and pleasures, teaching us by this 
example how we are deceived in our judg- 
ment of the value of these things, and how 
rather we should regard them. 

The star of the Magi gives us great light on 
this subject. St. Matthew relates how this 
miraculous star appearing to the princes in 
their own country, caused them to start forth 
and led them to Judea and to Jerusalem ; how 
they inquired boldly where the King of the 
Jews was born ; how the star was eclipsed 
while they remained in Jerusalem, and when 
they were about departing from that city, 
reappeared, guided them to Bethlehem, and 
stopped over the stable where the child was. 
How many mysteries and excellent instruc- 
tions this narrative contains for us ! 



1 1 S Practice of Union with Our Lord 

First, the star, that is to say the light and 
the guides that God gives us to direct us in 
the path of our salvation and bring us to the 
perfection to which he calls us, should cause 
us to leave our country, in other words our- 
selves, and go to Jesus Christ. "The star 
went before them until it came and stood over 
where the child was." (Matt. ii. 9.) It guided 
them so far, and did not pass beyond. Even 
so all right direction and all good guides lead 
always to Jesus Christ ; they teach, they incite, 
they continually encourage and persuade us 
to go to him, to love him, to think of him, to 
unite ourselves to him, to imitate him as 
closely as the condition of each one of us will 
permit, and to make this the foundation and 
main part of all our devotions ; because he is 
our Saviour, our Redeemer our Last End and 
our road to reach it, our beatitude and our 
means of attaining it, and finally our all for 
our salvation. 

The star then guided the Magi to Jesus 
Christ. But in what state, and in what place ? 
To Jesus Christ a child. And where ? To 
Jesus Christ not radiant on a throne of glory, 
but hidden in a stable and couched in a 
manger, in a state of extreme poverty and 
humility, to teach us that God's true lights 



From Christmas to Lent. 119 

lead to the infancy of our Lord, to the sim- 
plicity, docility, submission, faith and inno- 
cence of children ; and to make us understand 
that all our lights, our knowledge, our science, 
our devotions, and our good direction, should 
lead to Jesus Christ, poor, humiliated and 
scorned, that we may esteem, adore, and 
honor him in that condition which he has 
assumed for us, and then imitate him. 

It was there that the star guided the Magi, 
and not elsewhere ; it even obscured itself 
above the rich and proud city of Jerusalem. 
It is there the Magi, that is the wise, go fear- 
lessly, not repulsed by this poor and abject 
exterior. But why ? 

Because they know that the present life is a 
life of faith and consequently a life hidden, 
rather than plainly manifested. The shep- 
herds were told by the angel in precise words 
that they should find "the Infant WTapped in 
swaddling clothes and laid in a manger" 
(Luke ii. 12), to signify to us that in this 
world we see our Lord and his mysteries 
through a veil, not openly, face to face. 

Secondly, because they know that this life 
is a life of merit, and that we must gain our 
beatitude as a reward, and therefore we must 
labor ; for there is no reward without merit, 



120 Practice of Union with Qjir Lord 

and no merit without labor. We must labor, 
that is we must exercise acts of virtue, of 
poverty, of humility, of submission, and others 
of which our Lord has given us an example. 

Finally, because they understand that man 
is completely ruined in soul and body by sin, 
and that all that is in him is, owing to the 
vicious inclination of his corrupt nature, either 
the concupisence of the flesh for pleasures, or 
the concupisence of the eyes for riches, or the 
pride of life for honors,* as is declared by St. 
John (i Jno. ii. 16) ; it is impossible for man 
to become virtuous unless he is changed, 
neither can he be made capable of the happi- 
ness which God prepares for him if he does 
not correct his vices. 

But how shall he correct them ? By their 
opposites. It is a general principle of medi- 
cine that diseases cannot be cured except by 
remedies opposed to them ; reason and expe- 
rience demonstrate this truth ; we never see 
like destroy its. like; heat does not banish 
heat ; cold is not chased away by cold, but 
clings to it as its friend, and by the union of 
the same natures increases it ; it is cold which, 
by the difference and hostility of its nature, 
extinguishes heat, and heat by the same law 
of opposition drives away cold. 



From Christinas to Lent. 12 r 

Thus we must not expect that our proud 
and ambitious nature will ever be cured by 
glory, dignity, and praise, which serve as food 
for pride and ambition ; but only by humilia- 
tions and abasements, w T hich are the contraries 
of those passions! Our irregular affection for 
riches will not be corrected by possessing 
them, but by poverty as the right salve for 
the wound. Our inclination for pleasures will 
be nourished and increased by the enjoyment 
of them, and can be destroyed only by con- 
trarieties and sufferings. You are too fond of 
creatures ; it will not be their conversation 
and attention that will deliver you from this 
defect, but rather their neglect and con- 
tempt. Such, then, are the medicines for 
our diseases, and without using them we can- 
not be healed. 

Even when human nature has not been 
spoiled and corrupted by sin, as in the Blessed 
Virgin ; and when it has been but very slightly, 
as in St. John the Baptist ; and when it has 
suffered to the degree that is ordinarily wit- 
nessed in men, though afterward restored 
miraculously, and receiving a most powerful 
grace which renders it invulnerable to mortal 
sin, as in the apostles, it must still be pre- 
served, nourished, and strengthened by these 

11 



122 Practice of Union zcith Our Lord 

same medicines — so true it is that our evils 
and vices must be treated and cured in one 
manner, and that no other will be efficacious. 

Our Lord who had no need for himself of 
these remedies, his nature being infinitely 
holy and absolutely impeccable, and who 
came to sanctify our nature, approved them, 
esteemed them, loved them, sought and made 
use of them, in order to teach us that they 
are the true and only ones which we must 
employ to recover spiritual health. He also 
made use of them to purify them, to sanctify 
and deify them in his person, and thus to 
sweeten for us their bitterness and render it 
easier for us to use them. 

This is why the kings, the magi, the wise, 
and all men, should go to the stable and the 
crib to learn the method of their cure ; and 
those whose condition does not permit them 
to leave their honors and riches to imitate cur 
Lord, should know that they must at least 
renounce their affection for them ; let them 
listen to the warning which David, a great 
king, gives them in these words : "If riches 
abound, set not your heart upon them." (Is. 
lxi. II.) The same warning applies to honors 
and pleasures. 

But as, in consequence of the weakness of 



From Christmas to Lent. 123 

our nature and the powerful attraction of 
sensible things, it is very difficult to keep our 
hearts detached from them, and very unusual 
to be surrounded by worldly glory without 
being a little vainglorious, to be among vani- 
ties without being vain, among pleasures 
without taking pleasure in them, to possess 
riches without in some degree loving them — in 
short, to be truly poor in spirit, we ought to 
consider it a great grace and a singular bless- 
ing from God when he takes from us such 
occasions of falling and places us, as regards 
the things of this world, in a state where our 
feeble virtue is not in such danger and can be 
more easily sustained and strengthened. 

Therefore, let us go with the magi, following 
the star of our Lord's example ; let us boldly 
enter Jerusalem and ask where the King of the 
Jews is born, without minding what the world 
will say about us ; let us with head erect enter 
the stable, let us adore the Child in the crib 
without being repulsed by its mean exterior ; 
on the contrary, let us, like those wise men, 
count it our greatest wisdom and our highest 
prudence to recognize and adore the Divinity 
in that poverty and lowliness, seeing in the 
poverty our treasures, in the lowliness our 
exaltation, and in the opprobrium our glory. 



124 Practice of Union zvitli Onr Lord 

Let us, after the model which our Lord gives 
us, scorn this inferior and visible world where 
we are to abide but for a little time, and where 
things are but shadows ; and let us unceas- 
ingly aspire to the superior and invisible world 
which will be our eternal dwelling, and where 
true riches, true honors, and true pleasures 
await us. 

Let us constantly mistrust this w*orld as a 
deceiver, and no matter what it presents for 
our enjoyment let us suspect it as we would 
the offerings and gifts of an enemy. St. Am- 
brose says (Lib. de Virgin.) that as poison is 
always disguised with honey or sugar, other- 
wise it would not be taken, so vices would not 
tempt us if they showed themselves in their 
natural ugliness and revealed the evils that 
follow them ; the world and the flesh could 
not deceive us — the one w T ith its vanities, the 
other with its pleasures — if they did not dis- 
guise themselves and hide their consequences. 

J. Mortification, exterior and interior. 

As an example of exterior mortification, we 
see our Lord born in the darkest hour of the 
night and in the severest month of the winter ; 
on the eighth day spilling his blood from a 
most sensitive wound, the apprehension of 



From Christmas to Lent. 125^ 

which at so tender an age and in so delicate a 
body, injured him as much as the incision 
caused him pain ; then suffering excessively 
the greatest inconveniences in a strange coun- 
try ; whence he says by his prophet: "In 
laboribus a juventnte pied? (Ps. lxxxvii. 16.) 
" I am poor, and in labors from my youth." 

For interior mortification, our Lord was 
circumcised before he received the sacred 
name of Jesus, which means Saviour, to teach 
us that the circumcision of the spirit which 
consists in the retrenchment of thoughts, 
desires, affections, words, and all other super- 
fluous things, is necessary to receive the effects 
of the name of Jesus, which are grace, peace, 
joy, salvation, and perfection. 

Oh ! how important, if we would belong to 
Jesus in this world and in the other; is this 
circumcision of the spirit of which that of the 
body was only the -figure ! It must necessarily 
be effected in you if you wish to be saved, and 
to be sprinkled with the blood that Jesus 
Christ shed for men in this mystery. This is 
win- we are told : " Circumcidimini Domino ." 
(Jer. iv. 4.) "Be circumcised to the Lord." 
Practice circumcision in your interior where 
God dwells, as in his temple, and where he 
should be honored ; and be careful, if you 



126 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

would bear his mark, as he is not a body but 
a spirit, to retrench the uncleanness of your 
heart and the foolishness of your spirit. 

Thus St. Paul says: "We are the circum- 
cision." " Nos sumus circitmcisior (Philipp. 
iii. 3.) We are circumcised as well as the 
Jews ; but while the Jews, in their gross and 
carnal law, were circumcised only according 
to the flesh, we, in our law, which is spiritual 
and perfect, are circumcised in a more excel- 
lent and noble manner — in the spirit. And 
addressing all true Christians in the persons 
of those who were at Colossae, he says : "You 
are circumcised with circumcision' not made 
by hand in the despoiling of the body of the 
flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ." 
(Coloss. ii. 1 1.) 

41 Thy head is like Carmel," (Cant. vii. 5) 
says the divine Spouse to all souls who are, 
or who desire to be his spouses; "thy head 
should be like the mountain of Carmel," 
which signifies, according to the interpreta- 
tion of St. Jerome, the science of circumcision. 
Your first and principal exercise should be to 
practice well the circumcision of the spirit. 
Jesus will not be given to you unless you are 
circumcised ; he gives himself only after cir- 
cumcision, but then he gives himself in reality. 



From Christmas to Lent. 127 

Undertake, then, this spiritual circumcision, 
with a resolution gently strong and constant, 
retrenching from your interior and exterior, 
cutting down your affections, your desires, 
your words, your clothes, your table, your 
furniture, your amusements — in a word, all 
those superfluities which the doctrine of the 
Gospel cannot endure, nor the eye of faith 
behold unpained after having seen our Lord 
in the stable, in Egypt, in Nazareth, and on 
the Gross. 

^. Esteem and love of the hidden life. 

Retreat, silence, and prayer have been sin- 
gularly prominent in these mysteries ; and by 
that secret and retired life, by that life of 
silence and prayer which our Lord led for so 
long a time and almost always, he has clearly 
shown us how much he prized and loved it, 
and how after his example we ought to hold 
it in high esteem and practice it constantly. 

Assuredly it is in solitude, in silence, in 
separation from creatures and in communion 
with God, who is wisdom, purity, and sanctity 
itself, that we will become wise, pure, and 
holy ; while in intercourse with men we will 
continue to be only like men, and frequently 
like something lower than men. Converse 



128 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

"with men usually distracts, weakens, dissipates, 
embarrasses, and stains the soul ; but converse 
with God produces in it quite contrary effects. 

As a means of enkindling our love for this 
secret and hidden life we must reflect how the 
Divine Word dwelt for an eternity hidden in 
the bosom of his Father without producing 
himself exteriorly; and when with his Father 
and the Holy Ghost he had accomplished the 
work of creation, he still remained, for four 
thousand years shut up and concealed without 
manifesting himself; and when he did manifest 
himself and appeared in person to the eyes of 
men, it was under the cloak of our nature, 
which disguised him so completely that he was 
taken for another. Still more, though he 
came to teach, he passed thirty years without 
saying a word save on one single occasion, 
and that at an age when men would be un- 
likely to pay much heed to his instructions ; 
and when at last he was pleased to teach men 
and converse with them, he was always a 
hidden and an unknown God. (Is. xlv. 15.) 

It is remarkable that our Lord, the Word of 
God, the Incarnate wisdom and the Doctor of 
men, who could have told us so many beautiful 
and good things, and who could not have told 
us a single bad one, lived thirty years without 



From Christmas to Lent. 129 

telling us anything excepting once by the way 
as it were ; moreover, that God willed that all 
his words and actions during that long period, 
which undoubtedly were most excellent, should 
be almost entirely unknown to us ; it teaches 
us liow much our Lord loved silence and sepa- 
ration from creatures, and how we should love 
the same silence and separation. 

There is nothing which consists less in 
words than Christianity ; it is formed entirely 
of effects. "The kingdom of God is not in 
speech, but in power," says the Apostle. (1 
Cor. iv. 20.) And this is evident from the 
manner of preaching followed by our Lord 
and his apostles ; it was very simple and very 
popular. Whence St. Paul, the greatest 
preacher of the Church, writing to the Corin- 
thians who prided themselves upon their fine 
language, tells them : "When I came to you 
I came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, 
declaring unto you the testimony of Christ. 
For I judged not myself to know anything 
among you, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. 
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, 
and in much trembling ; and my speech and 
my preaching was not in the persuasive words 
of human wisdom, but in the showing of the 
spirit and power." (1 Cor. ii. I, 2, 3, 4.) 



130 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

Among the Gentiles speech was a power ; 
the eloquence of Demosthenes and Cicero 
produced marvelous effects in their republics. 
But before God, and among true Christians, 
works have the greatest weight ; works are 
praised or blamed, are rewarded or punished, 
according to their merit ; thus our Lord says 
that on the day of judgment "he will render 
to every man according to his works." (Matt, 
xvi. 27.) 

It is in the hidden life, the life of silence 
and prayer, that we will grow with our Lord, 
of whom St. Luke says, that he " advanced in 
wisdom, and age, and grace w T ith God and 
men." (Luke ii. 52.) The characteristic of 
the just is to grow, to advance constantly 
from good to better without stopping. David 
says the just " shall go from virtue to virtue " 
(Ps. lxxxiii. 8), they will make each day new 
progress on the road of their salvation. David's 
son compares them to the light which appear- 
ing at morning in the horizon, goes on increas- 
ing continually until it reaches its perfection 
at mid-day. (Prov. iv. 18.) The wicked, on 
the contrary, remain always in the same place, 
as David well expressed when he said : 4< The 
wicked walk round about." (Ps. xi. 9.) The 
impious, that is those who make profession of 



From Christmas to Lent. 131 

piety but practice it badly, walk found about 
like animals that turn wheels, and after having 
made five hundred turns and getting tired 
during the whole day, are at night just where 
they began in the morning ; these unfortunate 
Christians after many turns and circles of 
their practices of devotion, of their commu- 
nions, their prayers, etc., during the course of 
several years, find themselves at the same 
degree of humility, of patience, of obedience, 
and of virtue, as they were at first. 

But the just, after the example of our Lord, 
who is their great pattern, advance constantly. 
At the same time we must remember, with 
the holy Fathers, that our Lord's advance- 
ment in wisdom and grace was only exterior 
and in the eyes of men, who saw every day 
new effects of increased wisdom and stronger 
grace, and not interior and in the depths of 
his being, where his wisdom, his grace, and 
his other perfections could not receive any 
increase ; and he was in that, as in many 
other things like the sun, which possesses 
as much light and heat when it rises in the 
morning as at noon, though we say that in 
proportion as it shines higher and higher 
above our heads it increases in light and heat, 
not in itself, but in regard to us, by bestow- 



132 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

ing upon us a more abundant measure of these 
effects. Still we may say, with St. Thomas 
and the theologians, that our Lord really 
advanced every day in the experimental 
knowledge of things, as well as in age. 

The Just, imitating our Lord, grow in wis- 
dom, in grace, and in virtue, not only by 
producing, as he did, the exterior effects, but 
by acquiring in their souls and contracting 
the habits of w f isdom, grace, and virtue. 

In order now to know how and in what w T ay 
the just advance, I say that it is just as our 
bodies advance or grow. We sometimes see 
a child of whom we remark : " There is a child 
that is growing finely." Why ? Because his 
body grows larger visibly, his members become 
stronger and more robust every day. In the 
same way the just grow and advance when 
they become greater in thoughts, in affections, 
and in designs for God ; when they have more 
strength to bear adversities and persecutions, 
and more courage to resist sin and practice 
virtue. 

They grow when they watch over their ex- 
terior to regulate it well, and still more over 
their interior to have a firmer faith, a more 
filial hope, a more ardent charity, a more pro- 
found humility, a more constant patience, a 



From Christmas to Lent. 133 

more submissive obedience, a more attentive 
spirit of prayer, and purer intentions. 

They grow when they labor to destroy the 
old man that dwells in the members of their 
bodies and in the faculties of their souls, and 
to make the new man live in them. "Strip- 
ping yourselves," says St. Paul, " of the old 
man with his deeds, and putting on the new." 
(Col. iii. 9.) 

For this the just must watch over and do 
violence to themselves ; otherwise it is not 
possible to reform corrupt nature. The old 
man will never willingly depart to give place 
to the new; he must be chased out by vio- 
lence ; whence were written these celebrated 
words: "You will advance in virtue only in 
proportion to the violence you do yourself." 
(De Imit. Christi, L. I., c.xxv. 11.) The efforts 
you make and the victories you gain over 
yourself, will be the rule and measure of your 
advancement. 

He who desires to advance and to destroy a 
vice must understand a most important and 
absolutely necessary thing, namely, that he 
must be attentive to himself and watch over 
his actions. Without this attention and vigi- 
lance, his nature, prone to that vice, will never 

correct itself, because it will infallibly follow 
12 



1 34 Practice of Union zvitli Onr Lord 

its inclination if not restrained, as we see in 
all natural things. Do not expect a river to 
leave its bed and change its course ; of itself 
it will always follow its own current. Our 
nature will do the same in regard to all its 
inclinations and habits if it is not prevented ; 
and this can be done only by vigilance and 
attention to ourselves. 

Therefore, rest all the hope of your advance- 
ment, after the assistance of God, first on 
watching over your actions* to restrain your 
nature in its bad inclinations ; and then on the 
violence which you must do yourself in order 
to urge it to good. Thus you will grow ; in 
any other way you will remain at the same 
point entire years with all your exercises of 
devotion, and never pass beyond. 

Let us then grow with our Lord in his 
growth, drawing him into us to help us in this 
plan of spiritual advancement. " We may in 
all things grow up in him," says St. Paul. 
(Ephes. iv. 15.) Let us grow up in him ac- 
cording to all the dimensions of virtue. See 
how the flowers, the trees, the animals con- 
stantly grow until they reach the highest 
degree of their perfection. You yourself grow 
every day as regards your body which contin- 



From Christmas to Lent. 135 

ually increases in height, size, and strength, 
until it attains its full natural proportions. 

Seeing this, would it not be a great shame 
for you if your soul, that is incomparably 
nobler than your body, did not grow in like 
manner, but should remain always in the same 
state of littleness and childhood. If your 
body should be as small and have as diminu- 
tive members at the age of thirty years as 
when you were but three months old and 
were still wrapped in swaddling clothes, you 
would feel extreme confusion to be thus 
formed and to see yourself a child in size when 
you should be a man. You would certainly 
be considered a monstrosity, and people would 
pay money to look at you. Now, what is not 
the misfortune of your body is the misfortune 
of your soul when it does not grow in virtue, 
but ever remains stunted, puny, and weak in 
the practice of virtue and in the government 
of your passions. Therefore, be terrified at 
seeing in yourself this monstrous disposition, 
endeavor to cast it off and to grow up from it. 

IV.— MEDITATIONS. 

These should be drawn from the mysteries 
of the season. You may take them from the 
books that suit you best, or may derive them 



136 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

from what we have said, dwelling chiefly upon 
the affections that attract you most, and upon 
the virtues most necessary to you. 

V.— READING. 

See what has been said under this heading 
in the last chapter. 

VI.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

" If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, 
let him be anathema, maranatha," (1 Cor. xvi. 
22) — cursed because our Lord is come and is 
made man for him ! 

" My soul hath fainted after thy salvation ; 
and in thy Word I have very much hoped." 
(Ps. cxviii. 81.) My soul hath fainted from 
the strength of its love for thy incarnate Son 
whom thou hast sent here below r to save us, 
and I have steadfastly placed in him all my 
hopes. 

"Thy eyes shall see thy teacher, and thy 
ears shall hear the word of one admonishing 
thee behind thy back : ' This is the way, walk 
ye in it, and go not aside, neither to the right 
hand, nor to the left." (Is. xxx. 20, 21.) 
Thy eyes shall see thy Preceptor and thy 
Master in the crib as in his pulpit, and thy 
ears shall hear him telling thee : " Behold 



From Christmas to Lent. 137 

the right way, walk in it ; by it you must 
reach your salvation and your perfection ; 
turn neither to the right nor the left, if you 
would not be lost. 

"Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem; for 
thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord 
is risen upon thee." (Is. lx. 1.) Arise, Jeru- 
salem, above the earth and above low and 
human views ; open thy eyes to the light that 
is sent thee ; behold the day appears and the 
Sun of Justice will illumine thee ; behold the 
glory of the Lord shown to thee in the stable. 

44 You are dead, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God." (Col. iii. 3.) You ought to 
be dead, and to lead a life retired and hidden 
in God, after the pattern of that which Christ 
led. 



CHAPTER V. 

PRACTICE OF UNION WITH OUR LORD FOR 
THE SEASON OF LENT. 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

As the holy season of Lent is especially 
consecrated to the remembrance of the suffer- 
ings and death which our Lord was pleased 
to endure for us, the practice will be to inhale 
him and draw him into us in his suffering 
and dying states, to unite ourselves closely 
with him in the dispositions of those states, 
and to enter into the spirit of his cross if we 
desire to share its fruits and merits. 

I have already said that if we seriously 
desire to be saved, our greatest care and the 
object of all our devotions should be to unite 
ourselves to our Lord in his mysteries, and in 
everything. I say. it again, and it is most 
certain, because our salvation, our perfection, 
all the grace, all the glory, and generally all 
the blessings that we can ever possess in this 
life and in the other, depend upon this union ; 
for, as the holy Precursor says: "Of his full- 
ness we have all received, and grace for grace." 



For the Season of Lent. 139 

(Jno. i. 16.) We have all drawn from his 
source, and all our graces are only drops and 
little rivulets which flow to us from the 
streams that were given him without measure 
for himself and for us. 

Now, if we ought to unite ourselves with 
our Lord in all his mysteries, I add here that 
it is in the mystery of his passion and death 
that we ought chiefly to do so, and that it is 
with him suffering and dying that we should 
form our principal and closest ties. In the 
same manner as our body, while it is united in 
all its members to our soul as the principle 
of its life, is in a more intimate manner in 
the nobler parts, and especially in the heart ; 
whence Aristotle says that the heart is the 
part of the body which receives life first and 
loses it last. Even so we should be united to 
our Lord in all his mysteries, and in a most 
especial manner in that of his cross, because 
it is in his cross and by his cross that he has 
planned and decreed our predestination, that 
he has obtained our conversion, that he has 
secured our justification, that he has paid 
our debts, merited for us all the gifts of grace 
and glory we shall ever receive, and negoti- 
ated and concluded the whole business of our 
salvation. This is why our salvation and our 



140 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

happiness are attached to our union with him 
in this mystery. 

To be predestined and saved it is necessary 
to be united with our Lord not only when he 
has the power and the will to predestine and 
save, but when he actually does predestine and 
save, offices which he properly and only exe- 
cuted on the cross ; for, as theologians, sup- 
ported by the Sacred Writings, teach, while 
all our Lord's acts, even the least, were of 
an infinite excellence on account of the infin- 
ite dignity of his person, they were not infin- 
itely meritorious to acquire for men the 
blessings. of grace and glory, nor infinitely 
satisfactory to discharge their debts towards 
the Divine Justice, until they had been sprink- 
led with his blood and consummated by his 
death, to which God his Father had attached 
the salvation of the human race as to the 
perfection and crowning of the whole great 
work. (Cs. Becan. Part iii., c. 14.) 

Isaiah says : " If he shall lay down his life 
for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and 
the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his 
hand." (Is. liii. 10.) If he gives his life for 
the remission of sin, he shall see a long line 
of the just, and God's design to save men shall 
be executed bv his hands nailed to the cross. 



For the Season of Lent. 141 

"We have redemption through his blood," 
says St. Paul. (Eph. i. 7.) We are purchased 
with the price of his blood. And St. John 
declares : "Jesus Christ loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood. " (Apoc. i. 
5.) The whole Church militant proclaims the 
same truth when she says in the preface of the 
Mass of the Holy Cross : "Who didst effect 
the salvation of mankind on the wood of the 
Cross." And the Church triumphant sings 
to our Lord, according to the narrative 
of St. John : " Thou wast slain, and hast 
redeemed us to God in thy blood." (Apoc. 
v. 9.) Thou wast put to death, and, .by the 
merit of thy death and of thy blood, thou hast 
purchased us and acquired for us the eternal 
blessings we now enjoy. 

God might have pardoned men their sins in 
a thousand other ways, but he preferred the 
way of the Cross, as being to him and even to 
his Son incomparably more honorable, and to 
us more useful. Inasmuch as God had been 
dishonored and offended by the sins of men 
it was necessary that his honor should be 
restored and his justice satisfied. This un- 
doubtedly was accomplished more fully and 
with an infinitely greater advantage by the 
sufferings and death of his Son, than if he 



142 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

had refused to accept anything, or had de- 
manded the death of criminal men or the 
destruction of innocent angels, because there 
is nothing which as a reparation could com- 
pare with the death of a God ; still more, 
because the Son of God in dying surmounted 
forever his enemies, sin and the devil, and 
triumphed over them gloriously, and by his 
victory made us his booty and his conquest 
and acquired us to himself, and gave us many 
more reasonsto honor him, to thank him, and 
to love him, than if he had not suffered for 
us. 

The blessings which we derive from our 
Lord's death are infinite, because by it he has 
delivered us from the servitude of sin and given 
us our liberty ; he has trampled the devil under 
his feet, so that, unless we are willing, he can 
no longer injure us ; he has closed the gates 
of hell and opened to us those of paradise ; 
and he has shown his great regard for us and 
the perfect love he bears us, by buying us so 
dearly and giving infinitely more than was 
necessary, since he might have ransomed us 
with a single glance of his eye or one word 
from his lips. A man who gives a hundred 
thousand dollars for something which he might 
buy for one cent, shows in the strongest man- 



For the Season of Lent. 143 

ner his high estimate of it, his deep affection 
for it, and his violent desire to possess it. 

Therefore we must infer that the mystery 
of the Cross is the mystery of predestination, 
of justification, of salvation, and of the entire 
happiness of mankind ; it is there, in it, that 
our Lord became truly ours and made us his ; 
it is in it that he espoused the Church, "which 
he hath purchased with his own blood," as St. 
Paul declares. (Acts xx. 28.) There he made 
himself our Head and us his members ; there 
he pours upon us his salutary influences and 
exercises, in a most admirable manner, his 
functions as Chief, and desires that we should 
acquit ourselves of the submission and other 
duties that followers owe their Chief. 

When St. Paul speaks of the body of the 
Church, and of our Lord's union with the faith- 
ful as the Head with the members, (Rom. vi. 
5 ; Gal. ii. 19 ; Coloss. i. 24.) he almost always 
makes mention of the Cross and death of our 
Lord as the means and bond of this union, 
just as our members are united with the head 
by the nerves and muscles. From this we 
should conclude that we ought to exert our- 
selves to our utmost to unite ourselves with 
our Lord, especially in this mystery of his 
passion, and that it should be the part of our 



144 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

devotions to which we should apply ourselves 
more than to all the rest. 

Let us imitate St. Paul, who, writing to the 
Corinthians, said : "I judged not myself to 
know anything among you but Jesus Christ, 
and him crucified." (i Cor. ii. 2.) To this I 
reduced all my science. And let us copy St. 
Bernard, who, speaking of our Lord's death 
and passion, renders this testimony of him- 
self :" I believed that true wisdom consisted 
in meditation on the sufferings and death of 
my Saviour ; I chose it as the most efficacious 
means to acquire virtues and attain perfection ; 
I relied upon it for the completion of my 
knowledge, for the riches of my salvation, 
and for the abundance of my merits. Behold 
my highest philosophy, to know Jesus Christ, 
and Jesus Christ crucified." (Serm. 43, in 
Cant.) 

In order to practice this most important 
exercise and unite yourself with our Lord 
crucified, you must perform carefully and with 
great earnestness what w r e shall now direct ; 
taking for the food of your understanding and 
the occupation of your will, not the whole 
together, but sometimes one thing and some- 
times another, according as you feel disposed, 
dwelling upon it until it makes an impression 



For the Season of Lent. 145 

on your soul, or you find it powerless to move 
you, when you may pass to another point that 
may produce more effect upon you. 

II.— THE AFFECTIONS. 

Taking it for granted that the soul has a. 
lively faith and a perfect conviction that he 
who was fastened to the Cross for us is the 
true and only Son of God, which faith and 
conviction must be the foundation and basis 
of all the rest, the first affection will be : 

. 1. Admiration. 

As what is great, new, and strange, excites 
admiration and astonishment in the beholder, 
and in the same proportion in which it is 
great, new, and strange, so we cannot doubt 
that the first affection that should touch our 
hearts at this holy time should be extreme 
admiration and profound astonishment at 
seeing God fastened to a gibbet and dying 
upon it. God fastened to a gibbet ! God 
dying ! What an object ! What a spectacle ! 
Neither eternity nor time has ever seen, or 
will ever see, anything like it, or that ap- 
proaches a resemblance to it. Truly here we 

should cry out with the Prophet : " Who bath 
13 



T46 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

ever heard such a thing ? and who hath seen 
the like to this ?" (Is. lxvi. 8.) 

The friends of Job seeing- that holy man 
fallen from a high and happy position into an 
abyss of misery, and seated upon a dunghill 
scraping with a piece of pottery the matter 
•which flowed from the sores on his body, were 
•so terrified that for seven days they were quite 
out of their senses and powerless to address 
.'him a single word. Yet he was only a man, 
and his afflictions were but figures and 

shadows of those of the Son of God. 

■ 

Therefore what should be our astonishment, 
and with what awe should we not be filled at 
>the sight of the Creator of heaven and earth, 
the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the God 
of glory, the Infinite Majesty and Holiness 
itself, taken as a criminal, treated as a male- 
factor, cruelly cut with whips at a pillar, and 
made frightful with his own blood, crowned 
w r ith sharp thorns, struck, his face spat upon, 
the hair plucked from his head and his beard 
torn, all imaginable outrages heaped on him, 
and then dying upon an infamous cross be- 
tween two thieves ! God suffering such indig- 
nities and dying in such a manner ! Is it not 
enough to cause our hearts to faint and our 
souls to sink to nothingness ? 



For the Season of Lent. 147 

The prophet Daniel having" seen only in 
the person of an angel a figure of this truth, 
and heard from his lips some words which 
gave him a knowledge of it, says of himself : 
4 ' There remained no strength in me, and the 
appearance of my countenance was changed 
in me, and I fainted away and retained no 
strength. And I heard the voice of his words ; 
and when I heard I lay in a consternation 
upon my face, and my face was close to the 
ground." (Dan. x. 8, 9.) If the figure made 
so powerful an impression upon a man of the 
Old Law, what may not, and what ought not 
the reality to effect upon us in the New 
Law ? 

To speak with all reason, there is nothing 
in the passion and death of the Son of God, 
the consideration of which is not capable of 
ravishing our souls, and of plunging and 
engulfing them in an abyss of astonish- 
ment, because all in this mystery is of unpre- 
cedented grandeur ; the dignity of the Person 
who suffers is infinite ; the torments of body 
and soul which he endures are innumerable 
and excessive ; the insignificance and the 
lack of merit of those for whom he suffers 
is extreme, and the love with which he suffers 



148 Practice of Unio?i with Oar Lord 

is boundless. If we do not admire these won- 
ders, what shall we admire ? 

2. Compassion. 

It would be terrible for us to have no com- 
passion for our Lord's woes, since the elements 
and inanimate things had so much ; we must 
indeed be heartless if we can look upon his 
horrible sufferings without pity. 

The afflictions of an amiable and beloved 
person move us to compassion and excite our 
pity. If w r e should see a young prince, 
eighteen or twenty years of age, of an ex- 
tremely delicate and sensitive constitution, 
beautiful as the day, faultlessly gentle and 
gracious, liberal, magnanimous, who had never 
injured any one, but had ever done good to 
all, and who was innocent of any crime, ex- 
tended upon a wheel and an executioner 
breaking his arms and legs, would it be pos- 
sible, even if our heart were like a rock, to 
witness such a sight without experiencing 
deep emotions and shedding an abundance 
of tears ? Most men would not even have 
the courage to be present at so painful an 
.execution and to behold so lamentable an 
object. Now, all these qualities are found in 
unequaled perfection in the person of our 



For the Season of Lent. 149 

Lord, whose sufferings consequently ought to 
touch us far more and to make incomparably 
deeper impressions upon our souls. 

Let us represent to ourselves this only Son 
of God, this Sovereign Monarch of the uni- 
verse, in the Garden praying under circum- 
stances so pitiful that the consideration of 
them must needs move the hardest hearts. 
Let us see him prostrate with his face to the 
earth before his Father angered against us ; 
let us hear the words he utters in the extrem- 
ity of his weariness and distress: "My soul 
is sorrowful even unto death !" And then let 
us behold issuing from his whole body that 
bloody sweat which makes him an object of 
extreme commiseration, and obliges his Father 
to send one of his angels to comfort him. 

Or let us contemplate him bound, naked, to 
a column, and exposed to the gaze of a crowd 
of insolent spectators ; executioners enraged 
and animated by the devils, discharge furi- 
ously and with all their might a shower of 
blows upon that virginal flesh and that most 
delicate body, sparing neither the limbs, nor 
any part which they do not bruise to blood, 
and upon which they do not leave horrible 
marks of their cruelty and diabolic rage. 

Or again, let us look upon him hanging 



150 Practice of Union zvitJi Our Lord 

from a gibbet between two thieves, rendering 
up his soul in a depth ot opprobrium, of 
anguish, and of every species of suffering ; 
and as the crown of all, let us remember that 
we are the cause of his sufferings, that he 
endures them for our sakes, and that it is his 
perfect love for us which has brought him to 
this extremity. 

Is it possible that not being able to see a 
man broken upon the wheel, nor even, which 
is much less, a beast suffer and moan, without 
being moved to pity, we can look tearlessly 
and without emotion upon the inexplicable 
sufferings of our Lord, sufferings v/hich we 
have caused him ? The sight is so touching 
that the prophet Isaiah says it causes even the 
angels to weep. " Behold they that see shall 
cry without, the angels of peace shall weep 
bitterly." (Is. xxxiii. 7.) Behold the angels 
who enjoy perfect peace in their beatitude, 
are troubled, if w r e may so say, and though 
far removed from tears by the happiness of 
their condition, shed them in torrents when 
they contemplate the Son of God dishonored, 
bathed in blood, torn, and outraged to the 
degree that he was throughout the course of 
his passion ; that is, they would melt into 
tears if they were capable of them and if their 



For the Season of Lent, 151 

nature were like ours, although they are not, 
as we are, the subject and cause of our Lord's 
sufferings. 

It is true that the love the angels have for 
our Lord contributes much to their compas- 
sion ; for if one loves, one has pity for the 
woes of the person beloved, pity which in- 
creases in proportion to the love. Thus a 
mother cannot see her only son whom she 
greatly loves, suffer even a pain in the end of 
his finger without sharing that pain ; and if 
his affliction is more serious, she feels her 
whole soul moved and fainting ; she sighs, 
she weeps, she laments, she is inconsolable, 
she looks at her dear son with pitying eyes, 
she mourns over him with bitter words, and 
she comforts him as best she can — all this 
she would not do if she did not love him. 

Alas ! if we loved our Lord nearly as much 
as we ought we w r ould not be so indifferent 
and insensible to his afflictions and sorrows, 
but they would certainly pierce our hearts, 
while now we see representations and hear 
descriptions of them and are not touched ever 
so slightly, because we do not love him. 

Let us begin to love him, and compassion 
for his excessive woes which he suffers through 
us and for us, will soon follow, and will 



152 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

enable us to fulfill the famous prophecy of 
Zachariah through whom our Lord says : 
" They shall look upon me whom they have 
pierced, and they shall mourn for me as one 
mourneth for an only son." (Zach. xii. 10) 
They shall look upon me fastened to the 
Cross, and considering who I am and what I 
suffer, from whom and for whom, that it is 
they themselves who have brought me to 
this state, and that I submit to it for their 
salvation, they will break forth into great 
lamentations and will weep as bitterly as a 
mother who has lost her only son. 

J. Regret for Sin. 

It will be very easy as a consequence of our 
compassion and the reasons we have con- 
sidered in order to excite ourselves to it, to 
conceive an extreme regret and to have a 
true contrition for our sins. 

We are the cause of all the woes and tor- 
ments which our Lord suffered ; our sins 
produced his pains, and apart from them he 
would not have endured his passion and death. 
The Prophet tells us : " He was wounded for 
our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins." 
(Is. liii. 5.) He was stricken for our ini- 
quities ; for our crimes he was seized, buf- 



For the Season of Lent. 153 

feted, scourged, torn with rods, crowned with 
thorns, and crucified. Is this not sufficient, 
and more than sufficient, to transpierce our 
hearts with sorrow and to chill our souls with 
regret for having sinned ? 

We have caused the Son of God to suffer, 
to be scourged, buffeted, crucified. We are 
the reason why the Infinite Majesty before 
whom the highest Cherubim and Seraphim 
prostrate themselves in adoration, has been 
dishonored, why Sanctity itself has been 
counted among criminals, Innocence con- 
demned, Wisdom taken for folly, and the 
Living God reduced to that extremity which 
terrified the whole universe, of dying ignomin- 
iously and cruelly on a gibbet between two 
thieves. 

Alas ! if on our account and for some fault 
committed by us the meanest slave should be 
whipped, or have his hand cut off by an exe- 
cutioner, or even if through carelessness we 
should break a dog's leg and should hear him 
howl, it would be impossible for us not to be 
sorry, and not to regret the harm we had done. 

This is why the afflicted prophet Jeremiah 
thinking of this incomparable subject for 
regret, exclaims in his Lamentations: "Let 
tears run down like a torrent day and night ; 



154 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

give thyself no rest, and let not the apple of 
thy eye cease." (Lam. ii. 18.) My heart, be 
filled with sadness and weariness, break with 
sorrow ! And you, my eyes, open to torrents 
of tears which shall never cease, that you may 
regret and mourn for my sins that have caused 
the sufferings and death of the Son of God ! 
Even the Jews, who were the immediate- 
cause of our Lord's death, and who were pres- 
ent at it with the pagan officers of justice, 
returning from Calvary beat their breasts, 
touched with sadness and repentance for the 
evil deed they had just accomplished. (Luke 
xxiii. 48.) 

But, to enter still further and more perfectly 
into the spirit of regret for our sins, we ought 
for several consecutive days during this season 
of Lent, which is properly the season for peni- 
tence, to unite ourselves with particular care 
to our Lord sorrowing and afflicted for our 
sins, and to inhale him and draw him into us 
in this disposition. 

In order to understand this well we must 
know that among the most remarkable acts 
that our Lord performed for our salvation, one 
was the extreme affection with which he gave 
himself up to obtain the pardon of our sins 
and to reconcile us with his Father. We had 



For the Season of Lent. 155 

all offended God ; we were all loaded with 
crimes ; and for this the Divine Justice had 
condemned us to eternal flames without hope 
of ever being able to enter paradise. God 
regarded us as his enemies upon whom he was 
to exercise his vengeance forever, when his Son 
through a goodness and love for which we can 
never throughout all eternity be sufficiently 
thankful, undertook to restore us to friendship 
with his Father, to induce that Father to for- 
get his injuries and pardon us our offences, so 
that he might receive us again into his favor, 
and from the enemies we were make of us his 
children and open to us his paradise instead 
of the hell we had merited. St. Paul says : 
"When we were enemies we were reconciled 
to God by the death of his Son." (Rom. v. 
10.) Though we were enemies of God, we 
have been happily reconciled to him and re- 
stored to his favor by the mediation of his Son 
and the merits of his death. And again : 
<( God hath reconciled us to himself by Christ. 
God indeed was in Christ reconciling the 
world to himself, not imputing to them their 
sins." (2 Cor. v. 18, 19.) God has restored 
us to his friendship by means of Christ, in 
whom he worked this ^reat undertaking of 



l 56 Practice of Union until Our Lord 

the reconciliation of mankind with himself 
and of the forgiveness of their sins. 

For this object our Lord did four things : 
first, he took our sins upon himself; second, 
he exercised deep sorrow and perfect contri- 
tion for them ; third, he begged God, his 
Father, to forgive them ; and fourth, he 
performed a terrible penance for them. 

As regards the first of these things, it is 
most certain and an article of our faith that 
the Son of God took our sins upon himself. 
Isaiah says : " Surely he hath borne our ini- 
quities and carried our sorrows. The Lord 
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He 
hath borne the sins of many." (Is. liii. 4, 6, 
12.) He has in reality, not merely in appear- 
ance, taken upon himself our weaknesses, our 
sorrows, and our miseries ; he has charged 
himself with our faults, our crimes, all that 
makes us sinners and consequently displeas- 
ing to his Father, who has laid on him our 
iniquities in order to relieve us of them. 

As a figure of this the prophet Zachariah 
saw the high-priest Jesus, son of Josedech, 
who represented our Lord, according to the 
explanation of Tertullian, Origen, St. Am- 
brose, St. Jerome, and several other Fathers, 
covered with a miserable robe full of stains 



£or the Season of Lent. 157 

and clothed in a tattered and filthy garment. 
" The Lord showed me Jesus, the high-priest ; 
and Jesus was clothed with filthy garments." 
(Zach. iii. I, 3 — 2 cf. Cornel, a Lap. Ibid.) This 
filthy robe covered with stains and dirt, sig- 
nifies our sins that Christ took upon himself. 
" Delieta meet" says St. Jerome, " appellantilr 
vestimenta sordida." And St. Ambrose, 
" Stabat Jesns et Jiabebat vestimenta sor- 
dida ; me a enim peccata portabat!' (Hieron. 
lb., Ambr. in Ps. cxviii.) That soiled garment 
that Jesus had on his shoulders, was my sins 
with which he charged himself. And the 
Prince of the Apostles says the same thing : 
"Peccata nostra ipse pertulit in cor pore sno 
super lignum" "Who his ownself bore our 
sins in his body upon the tree." Or, as the 
Syriac version gives it : " Bajidavit omnia pec- 
cata nostra, eaque sustidit in corpore sno ad 
crucem." (1 Pet. ii. 24.) He took upon him- 
self our sins, that is the punishment due them, 
and by the torments he suffered in his body 
and on the cross, he satisfied for us the Divine 
justice. And when he went to Calvary, bear- 
ing his cross, we should see in that cross all 
our sins which he carried and which weighed 
him down, and which he was going to wash 

and efface in the streams of his blood. 
14 



158 Practice of Union ivith Our Lord 

That mysterious goat spoken of in the 
Book of Leviticus (Levit. xvi.), on the head 
of which the priest placed both his hands 
while making a public confession of all the 
sins of the people with which he charged it, 
and which was then led away into the desert 
to be torn to pieces by wild beasts and expi- 
ate by its blood and death in some manner 
the sins of the people, was a visible picture of 
this truth. 

For this reason our Lord, in the Psalms, 
calls our sins his sins, our offences his offences, 
(Ps. xxi., xxxix., lxviii.,) not in the sense of 
having committed them, but because he has 
charged himself with them and made them 
his own burden ; just as a person who has 
become security for another makes the debts 
of that other his own, and is the one to whom 
the creditor applies, forcing him to pay instead 
of the real debtor. 

As to the second point, our Lord's sorrow 
and contrition for our sins, it is to be remarked 
that the first obligation of every man who has 
committed a fault is to regret that fault and 
repent of it. Therefore, our Lord, who took 
upon himself all our faults and all our sins, 
and all the consequences of them, experienced 
the same sorrow and repentance for them 



For the Season of Lent. 159 

as if he had himself committed them. " Him, 
that knew no sin, for us he hath made sin, 
(2 Cor. v. 21, cf. Corn, a Lap. Ibid.) says St. 
Paul. Likewise the prophet Isaiah says, 
according to the Septuagint version: "He 
bears our sins, and has regret and sorrow for 
them." (Is. liii. 4.) And St. Ambrose says : 
"Our Lord having nothing in himself to 
regret, regretted my sins." (Ambr. in c. 22, 
Luke.) 

Now, this regret and sorrow our Lord had 
for our sins was a true and continual act of 
most lively, most intense contrition, a contri- 
tion so deep as to have no parallel, and which 
without a miracle would have caused his death 
each moment of the day. Assuredly if, as we 
read, several famous penitents unable to bear 
their excess of sorrow, died of grief for their 
sins, we may with much greater reason say 
that the same thing would have happened to 
our Lord if he had not by his omnipotence 
prevented it in order to reserve himself for 
his last sacrifice. 

The reason of this is evident. Sorrow is 
greater in proportion as the evil that causes 
it is greater and afflicts a being dearer and 
more tenderly beloved. Our Lord's sorrow 
was for sin, which is the greatest of all evils, 



160 Practice of Union with Oztr Lord 

the sovereign evil ; the sins of men, countless 
as they are in- number, offend the Divine 
Majesty which he loved with an infinite love 
and which he knew to be worthy of infinite 
honor and respect, and are besides injurious 
to men whom he loved most ardently and 
earnestly desired to save. Therefore, his 
sorrow and contrition for our sins exceeded 
anything that we can conceive ; on account 
of its bitterness and abundance, Jeremiah com- 
pared it to the sea : "Great as the sea is thy 
destruction." (Lam. ii. 13.) Thy contrition. 

It was this sorrow that caused the Son of 
God to weep frequently and bitterly, it was 
this contrition for our sins that drew rivers of 
tears from his eyes and sobs from his heart. 
He says, by Jeremiah : " My eyes have failed 
with weeping" (Lam. ii. 11) ; and by David : 
" My life is wasted with grief, and my years 
in sighs." (Ps. xxx. 11.) 

In the third place, we cannot doubt that 
our Lord asked pardon for us of God his 
Father, since Isaiah says : " He hath borne 
the sins of man)^ and hath prayed for the 
transgressors." (Is. liii. 12.) And St. Paul : 
44 Who in the days of his flesh with a strong 
cry and tears offering up prayers and suppli- 
cations" to God his Father. (Heb. v. 7.) 



For the Season of Lent. 161 

He prayed for us often during the whole 
of his life from the moment of his concep- 
tion to his death, because from that first 
moment he had a perfect knowledge of all 
the sins of men, of the dishonor God would 
receive from them and the misfortunes they 
would bring on men ; this knowledge fur- 
nished him a subject of continual regret, of 
unceasing prayer for pardon for us. And 
even now in Heaven, seated at the right hand 
of his Father he still intercedes for us, show- 
ing his wounds and recalling his merits. St. 
Paul says : " He maketh intercession for us " 
(Rom. viii. 34) ; and, as St. John says (1 Jno. 
ii. 1), " he is our advocate, pleading our cause." 

But he prayed in an especial manner on the 
Cross where he said : \' Father, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do " (Luke xxiii. 
34) ; and St. Paul declares that he said it 
"with a strong cry and tears." (Heb. v. 7.) 
These words of St. Paul must refer to our 
Lord's prayer on the Cross, as the Evangel- 
ists relate that he died "crying with a loud 
voice" (Matt, xxvii. 50), and that as he yield- 
ed up his spirit he bowed his head (Jno. xix. 
30), as if to render his prayer more effectual. 
An ancient Father tells us that "all the acts 
of Jesus Christ during his mortal life were as 



162 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

so many prayers and supplications to God 
his Father for the sins of the human race, 
and the blood he shed had a strong voice and 
a powerful clamor to obtain their pardon, 
and did truly obtain it." (Primas. lb.) 

Notice his prayer in the Garden of Olives. 
With what affection, with what earnestness, 
with what gestures, and in what a posture he 
prays ! How sad and imploring is his prayer ! 
He prays to his Father not alone for himself, 
but for us ; he kneels, bows his head even to 
the earth, humbles himself as deeply as pos- 
sible in body and still more in soul ; he is 
seized with an extreme sadness and weariness 
which are like the pangs of death and causes 
him to sweat blood. He is in some sort like 
a poor father, who, seeing his only son, the 
object of all his affections, condemned to 
death for a crime, is transported with sorrow 
for his son's misfortune and guilt ; his grief is 
inexpressible. What does he not do, what 
does he not say to the king to obtain the 
son's pardon ? With what entreaties, what 
supplications and pleadings, with what emo- 
tions and floods of tears, does he not beg 
for mercy ? Even thus our Lord prayed to his 
Father for us in the Garden. The prophet 
Jeremiah says of him : " He shall put his 



For the Season of Lent. 163 

mouth in the dust, if so there may be hope.'' 
(Lam. iii. 29.) He will bow his head to the 
ground and put his mouth in the dust, to see 
if in that posture he may find hope. 

Fourthly, our Lord, having loaded himself 
with our sins, not only had sorrow for them 
and prayed his Father to forgive them, but he 
performed penance for them during his whole 
life and especially in his passion and death. 

" He was wounded for our iniquities, he was 
bruised for our sins," says Isaiah. (Is. ■ liii. 5.) 
He was wounded for our sins, he suffered ex- 
cruciatingly to obtain the remission of our 
crimes, he performed for them a most severe 
penance. 

St. Bonaventure says likewise : " He was 
by nature the son of the house, and through 
goodness he made himself the servant ; and 
he was not content to take the form of a 
servant to obey, but he took the form of a 
wicked servant to be beaten and scourged ; 
and he made himself not only the servant of 
the servants of God, as his Vicar on earth 
calls himself, but still more the servant of the 
servants of the devil, rendering service to the 
vilest of sinners, in order to expiate our sins 
by his sufferings and death." (Bonav. de Perf. 
vit. c. 6.) 



164 Practice of Union zvith Onr Lord 

St. John Climacus mentions (Jno. Clim. Grad. 
5.) some illustrious penitents whose violent 
regret for their sins, and extreme desire for 
pardon and penance, enabled them to do 
things truly most terrible ; but after all, their 
penances bore no comparison with our Lord's. 
For what a penance was it not for him, the 
only Son of God, to be born a little child in a 
stable in the depth of winter, to be laid in 
a manger upon straw, and to be deprived of 
every comfort ! to be circumcised the eighth 
day and spill his blood with excessive pain 
and extreme dishonor ! to suffer all that he 
suffered in his flight into Egypt and his tarry- 
ing there ! What a penance was it not for 
him to lead a hidden and laborious life for 
thirty years, exercising the trade of a carpen- 
ter and gaining his bread by the labor of his 
hands and the sweat of his brow ! 

But finally what a penance did he not per- 
form for our sins in his passion and death, 
when he was taken and bound as a malefac- 
tor, cruelly scourged at a pillar, crowned with 
sharp thorns, mocked, buffeted, and then fas- 
tened to a gibbet to die amid inexpressible 
torments between two thieves ! 

The prophet Isaiah says: "There is no 
beauty in him nor comeliness ; and we have 



For the Season of Lent. 165 

seen him, and there was no sightliness — de- 
spised, and the most abject of men, a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with infirmity/' (Is. 
liii. 2, 3.) He was so disfigured and so hideous 
to look upon on account of the stripes he had 
received, his wounds, the plucking out of his 
hair and beard, the blows that had been given 
him, the spittle with which his face was 
smeared, the blood, partly flowing, partly 
congealed, that covered his whole body, that 
he was unrecognizable ; we saw him in a most 
contemptible condition, and we took him for 
the most afflicted of all mankind, a man filled 
with sorrows, and who well knew from his 
own experience what it is to suffer. What a 
penance ! Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, 
and perfect Innocence, dying, dead upon a 
gibbet ! What a penance ! 

Jesus Christ performing penance, and such 
a penance, for our sins ! Is it not most just 
that we who have committed them, should 
have some part in it ? 

Represent to yourself our Lord clothed in 
that miserable robe that Zachariah saw, and 
loaded with our vanities, our bursts of anger, 
our intemperances, and all our sins ; he feels 
unceasingly a deep regret and extreme dis- 
pleasure for them ; without intermission and 



1 66 Practice of Union zvitJi Our Lord 

with inconceivable vehemence he implores 
God his Father to pardon us, and he per- 
forms a frightful penance in our behalf. 

Seeing our Lord in this state for you, what 
should be your sentiments ? What should 
you say? What should you do? Should 
you be insensible and stupid, doing nothing? 
Or should you not endeavor to imitate him, 
to experience according to your capacity his 
feelings, and to participate in the penance he 
performed for you ? If you do otherwise you 
will be very unfortunate. And what a reason 
for terror you will have when he shall in his 
character as your security demand of you all 
he has paid in discharge of your debts ! Rest 
assured that it is to you he has said : " Ex- 
cept you shall do penance, you shall all like- 
wise perish" (Luke xiii. 5), and that it is for 
this that God his Father has appointed him 
the Judge of mankind. 

Therefore, as our Lord being loaded with 
your sins had his heart filled with sorrow and 
repentance for you, enter into that afflicted 
heart, and uniting your heart with it conceive 
a true sorrow, and produce acts of perfect 
contrition for all your sins. 

If you should see your friend, your brother, 
or the son of the king, sad and desolate, shed- 



For the Season of Lent. 167 

ding copious tears for a fault you had com- 
mitted and that had deserved the penalty of 
death, would your eyes remain dry, would you 
be unmoved ? Consider now that you owe 
much more to our Lord, who is afflicted and 
weeping for your sins. 

He has asked pardon of God his Father ; 
ask it also with him. " Mercy prays," says 
St. Augustine, " misery does not pray. Inno- 
cence implores pardon for guilt, guilt utters 
not a word. He w T ho has not sinned assumes 
the posture of a suppliant, and the sinner 
loaded with crimes does not prostrate himself 
to the earth." (Aug. I. de orat. Dom.) Surely 
the criminal son of that poor afflicted father 
of whom we have spoken, and who asked the 
king to pardon his son, would if he were at 
liberty follow his father, be sad and afflicted 
with him, weep with him, pray with him, and 
do all he could according to his age to help 
the father obtain his pardon. 

In the same manner, in union with our 
Lord, ask God his Father for the remission 
of your sins, ask it in his light, not in your 
own — that is to say, in his perfect knowledge 
of their multitude and enormity which is 
quite different from what you think ; for, as 
to the multitude of your sins, if you are aware 



1 68 Practice of Union ivitli Onr Lord 

of one there are fifty you do not see ; and to 
understand their enormity, you should know- 
how great God is, because the offence derives 
its magnitude chiefly from the greatness of 
the person offended. 

Finally, do penance for your sins with our 
Lord, practising in union with him the pain- 
ful exercises of Lent, the fasts, the longer 
prayers, the greater silence, the withdrawal 
from society and seeking of solitude in order 
to dwell more with God, the greater watch- 
fulness over yourself, the combat of your 
passions, and the giving of alms. 

And after all this offer to God the sorrow 
and repentance which our Lord had for your 
sins, the prayers he addressed to his Father 
to obtain your pardon, and the long and rude 
penance he performed to appease him "and to 
make up for your deficiencies in prayer and 
penance. 

Say to him with David : " Look on the face 
of thy Christ." (Ps. lxxxiii. 10.) Cast thine 
eyes upon the face of thy Son ; see the sad- 
ness of his heart and his regret for my sins ; 
hearken to the prayers he offered with tears 
to obtain my pardon. I know I do not deserve 
that thou shouldst hear me ; but he is infin- 
itely worthy to receive what he asks, because 



For the Season of Lent. 169 

he asks what he has dearly bought and at a 
price vastly more than its worth, and because 
he loves thee with an infinite love, and is by 
nature sovereignly elevated and of an abso- 
lutely infinite excellence. Wherefore the 
Apostle says that when he prayed to thee for 
sinners, thou didst render him the respect 
to hear his prayer : " He was heard for his 
reverence." (Heb. v. 7.) Consider all he 
has suffered to move thee to have mercy 
upon me. In his heart, repentant and stung 
with remorse for my offences, I am deeply 
sorry for them ; I ask thee pardon through 
his lips, and I perform my penance in. that he 
was pleased to perform for their expiation. 

^ Hope. 

The Cross is our great hope, and Jesus 
Christ crucified is our strongest support. 
This is why the Church sings : " O crux aye y 
spes unica" I salute thee, O Cross, my only- 
hope ! And St. Crysostom calls it " the hope 
of Christians, the safety of the world, the 
guide of the blind, the right road of travelers, 
the riches of the poor, the sword, the shield, 
the offensive and defensive arms of soldiers, 
the bulwark of the assailed, and the glorious 
trophy of the victory which the Son of God 
15 



170 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

gained over the devil and all our enemies." 
(Crysost. Or. in Cruc. et Serm. 8 et 22, de 
Div.) 

The reason on which this hop$ is founded, 
is the fact that our Lord paid our ransom on 
the Cross, and paid infinitely more than was 
necessary to discharge all our debts and 
remedy all our miseries. If our debts are 
paid we no longer owe anything ; nothing 
can be demanded of us if the satisfaction of 
this payment has been truly applied to us. 
St. Paul says, in this sense, that God "hath 
delivered us from the power of darkness, and 
hath translated us into the kingdom of the 
Son of his love." (Coloss. i. 13.) God has 
rescued us from the tyrannical power of the 
prince of darkness, and has placed us in the 
blessed state and kingdom of his beloved Son 
who bought us with his blood, the least drop 
of which is of an infinite value and conse- 
quently more than sufficient to efface all our 
sins, to deliver us from all our miseries, and 
to acquire for us every blessing. 

On this subject, Father Avila wrote to an 
afflicted person as follows: "We ought to 
establish our -hope in the passion and death 
of our Lord, and trust ourselves to his merits, 
banishing from our spirits all uneasiness, and 



For the Season of Lent* 171 

closing our eyes to all occasions for mistrust ; 
because our merits are as great as is the virtue 
of his passion and death, since it is ours and 
he has given it to us, having suffered for us. 
In this I confide, here I place my salvation ; 
here I take courage and mock at my enemies ; 
here, offering to the Eternal Father his Son, 
I ask whatsoever I need ; here I pay what I 
owe, and have something left besides ; and 
although my miseries are numerous and ex- 
cessive, I nevertheless find here a most potent 
remedy and a subject of joy greater than is 
that of my grief." 

And to another the same Father writes this 
advice: " Do not forget that our Lord Jesus 
Christ as our Mediator, stands between the 
Eternal Father and us, and that for his sake 
we are beloved and bound to his Father by 
so close a tie of perfect charity, that nothing 
could loosen it did not man himself cut it with 
the blade of a mortal sin. Have you ceased 
to remember that the blood of Jesus Christ 
cries for mercy for us, and that it cries so 
loud that it drowns the noise of our sins and 
prevents their being heard ? Do you not 
know that if our sins are still in existence, 
the death of Jesus Christ who died to kill 
them, must be of little worth since it could 



172 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

not destroy them ? Try to impress this truth 
deeply upon your mind, that Jesus Christ 
took upon himself the affair of our redemp- 
tion and salvation as his own business, and 
that we are so closely united with him that he 
and we must be loved or hated together ; and 
as it is not possible that being what he is he 
should be hated by his Father, so also it is 
not possible that we should be if we remain 
united to him by faith and charity. On the 
contrary, as he is loved and cherished we are 
also in him and by him, and with reason, 
because he weighs more in the balance of 
Divine Justice to make us loved than we do 
to make him hated. Undoubtedly the Father 
has more love for his Son than he has hatred 
for sinners who are converted to him. May 
Jesus Christ be praised and blessed forever, 
he who is, and whom we can with a loud voice 
call our hope ; there is nothing in the world, 
that can- intimidate and terrify as so much 
as he can reassure us.'' Thus says Father 
Avila. 

Of a truth it is easy for a sick man to form 
a strong hope of his cure when he knows he 
has a sovereign remedy vastly more powerful 
than his disease, and that the one who ad- 
ministers it has a great love for him and a 



For the Season of Lent. 173 

wondrous desire for his recovery. We have 
all this, and much more, in Jesus Christ. 

This is why when you behold him attached 
to the Cross you ought to gaze upon him with 
eyes full of trust, and say to him with David : 
" My mercy, and my refuge ; my support, and 
my deliverer ; my protector, and I have hoped 
in him." (Ps. cxliii. 2.) Behold my mercy 
and my refuge, my support and my liberator ; 
behold my great confidence. It is upon this 
Cross, upon this dear crucified One, that I 
found all my hope. 

Say to him again with the same David : 
In thee, Lord, have I hoped. My lots 
are in thy hands." (Ps. xxx. 2, 16.) Yes, my 
Lord, in thee I hope, and all my confidence is 
in thy hands pierced and nailed to the Cross 
for my salvation. 

5. Dwelling in the wounds of our Lord ; and 
particidarly in that of his side. 

The Holy Ghost, speaking in the Canticle 
of the just soul, says : " My dove in the clefts 
of the rock." (Cant. ii. 14.) My dove dwells 
in the clefts of the rock. This rock is Jesus 
Christ, according to these words of St. Paul : 
''And the rock was Christ." (1 Cor. x. 4.) 



174 Practice of Union ivith Our Lord 

And the clefts are his wounds. St. Bernard, 
explaining this passage, says : " The dove 
hides herself there as in a safe place, and looks 
without danger or fear at the hawk flying 
around her ; the sparrow builds there her 
nest, and the turtle-dove also, and there 
hatches and nourishes her little ones." 

The just soul takes pleasure in dwelling in 
the wounds of her Saviour, because they are 
magnificent palaces, cities of refuge, impreg- 
nable fortresses, boxes of precious perfumes, 
gates of salvation, sources of graces, tribunals 
of mercy, fountains of life, mines of gold, 
furnaces of charity and of the charms of 
benevolence. 

And she dwells in them m her thoughts 
and affections, producing acts of faith in their 
excellence and necessity for our salvation, in 
their priceless value and infinite merit ; acts 
of admiration, adoration, gratitude, hope, joy, 
love of her Saviour who was pleased to re- 
ceive them for her sake, and prayers to him 
to apply to her their fruits. 

But she makes her most usual and most 
agreeable dwelling in the wound of his side, 
because it is the wound of love ; since it was 
received in the heart, for love, after his death, 
to show that his death and his life and all his 



For the Season of Lent, 175 

mysteries had love and charity for their prin- 
ciple and their end, proceeding from the love 
he bears our souls- and tending to make him 
loved by them in return. Still more, it is not 
only the most loving place, but the most 
delightful, and the strongest and most secure ; 
so that the just soul says what St. Elzear 
sent as a message to St. Delphina, his wife : 
" If you want to find me you must seek me in 
the wound of our Lord's side, for it is there I 
dwell." 

It is there the soul exercises all the func- 
tions of the purgative, the illuminative, and 
the unitive life. It is there she ponders, ex- 
amines, and weeps for her sins, and in that 
Heart which once conceived an inexplicable 
regret and was pierced with sorrow for them, 
she implores God to pardon them. It is in 
that infinitely pure and holy Heart that holds 
in aversion and extreme horror the smallest 
venial sin, that she avoids the least offences 
and the lightest faults. It is in that penitent 
and afflicted Heart that she performs her 
mortifications and penances. It is in that 
generous and invincible Heart that she at- 
tacks her vices, combats her evil inclinations, 
resists the assaults of her enemies, and gains 
glorious victories. And if sometimes she falls 



176 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

into desolation and aridity, into weariness 
?nd heaviness of spirit, she suffers as she 
should in that Heart which in the Garden of 
Olives was desolate and weighed down with 
sadness even unto death. 

It is in that most humble, most patient, 
and most perfect Heart that she exercises 
humility, patience, virtues and good works ; 
there she prays mentally and vocally, there 
makes her preparation for Holy Communion 
and her thanksgiving afterward, being unable 
to select a holier, a more devotional and 
more recollected oratory. 

It is in that Heart, all burning with love for 
men, that she loves her neighbor, that she 
bears the imperfections of his body and soul, 
and suffers the injuries he does her, imitating 
St. Paul, who wrote to the faithful of Philippi : 
" God is my witness, how I long after you in 
the bowels of Jesus Christ." (Philipp. i. 8.) 
God is my witness how I love you all in the 
bowels and in the Heart of Jesus Christ. It 
was thence he, the Apostle, spoke to them, 
wrote to them, instructed them, reproved 
them, consoled them, and treated with them 
in everything ; and consequently he acted in 
a holy and godlike manner, tracing for us an 



For the Season of Lent. ijj 

excellent pattern for our intercourse with our 
neighbor. 

Finally, it is in that Heart, in perfect sub- 
mission to its inspirations and motions, that: 
the just soul performs all her actions both 
interior and exterior, with moderation, meek- 
ness, calmness, and pure intentions. 

It is also in that Heart, as in the true sanc- 
tuary and home of the unitive life, that she 
practices its peculiar functions, that she pro- 
duces the acts of the love of choice, the love 
of complacency, the love of good-will, the 
love of preference and of aspiration ; that she 
makes acts of adoration, glorification, praise, 
purity of intention, gratitude, offering of self, 
abandonment to the guidance of God, detach- 
ment of affection from all creatures, and 
elevation above all the things of earth, and 
that she possesses and enjoys repose and 
delight in God as in her centre. 

Behold the occupation of the soul in the 
wound of the Heart. Like one admitted into 
some beautiful palace, looking curiously above, 
below, and all around him, at the rare and 
wonderful treasures, she considers attentively 
what she finds in that Heart, remarks therein 
hatred for sin, the price of her salvation, our 
Lord's esteem for her, the love he has shown 



178 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

her, and a thousand other admirable and most 
beautiful things. 

Therefore let us go to that Side pierced for 
us, let us enter that Heart burning with love 
for us, let us dwell there night and day, never 
coming out, and let us there perform all our 
actions. " This is the gate of the Lord, the 
just shall enter into it" (Ps. cxvii. 20), says 
David. Behold the gate of the Lord, the 
wound of his side ; the just shall be careful to 
enter and make there their dwelling. 

6. Jear. 

As the Cross of Christ is the surest founda- 
tion of our hopes, it is also the greatest source 
of our fears. The Cross will be the infallible 
cause of our salvation if we live well ; but if 
we live an evil life and do not correct our 
vices, it will be the certain instrument of our 
ruin. Our Lord's death is the mystery of our 
redemption and of our condemnation, and it 
is by the Cross that both the predestined and 
the reprobate insure their end, according as 
they make use of it. 

To speak truly, what could the Eternal 
Father have given us more precious and more 
efficacious for our salvation, than his Son ? 
And what could the Son have done and 



For the Season of Lent.- 179 

suffered greater and more difficult than he 
did do and suffer ? Could the Father and the 
Son have shown more clearly the excess of 
the infinite love they bear us, and have given 
us more positive proofs of their extreme desire 
to save us ? Had the Father aught more per- 
fect and that he loved more dearly than his 
Son, and the Son anything better, and that 
he valued more than his honor, his life, and 
himself? By the prophet Isaiah they ask us : 
"Now judge between me and my vineyard. 
What is there that I ought to do more to my 
vineyard that I have not done to it ?" (Is. v. 
3, 4.) What more could I have given men, 
what more could I have endured to procure 
their salvation ? 

Therefore, what must remain for those who 
refuse to profit by the goodness of God, unless 
it be his justice ; for those who abuse the 
Cross as a means of their salvation, unless it 
be to experience it as the instrument of his 
vengeance and of their damnation ? This is 
what St. Paul very plainly shows us in his 
Epistle to the Hebrews, where he says : 
" Having therefore, brethren, a confidence in 
the entering into the Holies by the blood of 
Christ ; a new and living way which he hath 
dedicated for us through the veil, that is to 



180 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

say, his flesh." (Heb. x. 19, 20.) We have a 
hope of one day entering the sanctuary of 
God which is in Heaven, and of enjoying the 
felicity of the Saints through the merits of the 
blood of Jesus Christ, provided that to attain 
it we follow the path he has marked for us by 
his life while here below clothed with our 
flesh. " But, if we sin wilfully after having 
received the knowledge of the truth, there is 
now left no sacrifice for sins ; but a certain 
dreadful expectation of judgment, and the 
rage of a fire which shall consume the adver- 
saries." (lb. x. 26, 27.) If after the know- 
ledge of so important a truth, after so perfect 
a love, so great a mercy, and so powerful a 
remedy, Ave take no thought of saving our- 
selves, but continue to offend God, we may 
look forward to being infallibly lost ; we may 
consider our salvation gone, because we can- 
not expect a new Saviour, we have no right 
to hope that the Son of God will come again 
for us ; that he will be seized, scourged, nailed 
to a cross, and spill his blood again for our 
sins. He has done this once — it is more than 
enough ; he will not do it a second time. This 
is why, if we are not witling to make a good 
use of his death, we must hold it a certain 
thing that we will be judged by God with 



. For the Season of Lent. \ o ( 

extreme severity and terrible rigor, and con- 
demned with all his enemies to eternal flames. 

And let no one say that this punishment is. 
too great ; for the Apostle adds : '■ A man 
making void the law of Moses, dieth without 
any mercy under two or three witnesses. How 
much more do you think he deserveth worse 
punishments, who hath trodden under foot 
the Son of God, and hath esteemed the blood, 
of the testament unclean by w T hich he was 
sanctified ? It is a fearful thing to fall into 
the hands of the living God." (Heb. x. 28, 
29, 31.) If the breakers of the law of Moses 
convicted by two or three witnesses, found no- 
mercy, but were put to death without leniency, 
how much more rigorously should not he be 
punished, who through an execrable impiety 
tramples under foot the blood of the Son of 
God that was spilled to wash away his sins,. 
to sanctify and save him ? Oh ! w r hat a ter- 
rible thing it is to fall into the .hands of the 
living God when he is angered by the abuse 
of such mercy, and by contempt of the death 
of his Son ! 

Jesus going to Calvary said to the weeping 

women : " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not 

over me, but weep for yourselves and for your 

children. For if in the green wood they do 

16 



1 82 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

these things, what shall be done in the dry ?' ! 
(Luke xxiii. 28, 31.) If they treat so rudely 
the green wood which is still alive and there- 
fore should be preserved, what will the}' do to 
the dry wood which is dead and is no longer 
•good for anything but the fire ? If the father 
chastise so severely his only and innocent 
::son for the sake of his wicked and rebellious 
slave, with what severity and fury will he not 
'Chastise the slave himself if he does not 
correct his faults ? 

Not wishing to fall into the hands of God 
avenging the death of his Son, and being wise 
betimes, let us think seriously of making an 
excellent use of that death and applying to 
ourselves its merits and fruits, so that what is 
-the basis of our salvation may not become the 
■ occasion of our ruin. "When our Lord shall 
come to judge us," says St. Augustine, ''he 
will surely give us what he has promised, but 
he will likewise demand an account of what 
ihe has already given us and of what he has 
'done to redeem us. Remember that having 
been ransomed with mercy you will be judged 
with justice." (Aug. Serm. xliv. 8.) 



For the Season of Lent. 183 

7. Prayers and requests. 

Since the Cross is the mystery of our salva- 
tion, the arsenal that contains our arms, and 
the treasury whence we must draw our riches, 
we should constantly beseech our Lord to 
attach us to it, to communicate to us its 
salutary effects and impress upon us its grace 
and spirit ; we should very frequently breathe 
and inhale our Lord suffering, dying, dead for 
us. 

And as we are in a life w T here there is much 
to suffer, every day, and in many ways, 
why should we not fulfill the words of our 
Lord: "If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself and take up his cross daily, 
and follow me." (Luke ix. 23.) If any one 
would be my disciple he must renounce him- 
self and carry his cross each day, and in that 
manner follow me. Moreover, if our cross is 
not well carried, and our sufferings well borne, 
instead of being useful to us, they will be 
injurious ; but our Lord's cross and sufferings 
are able to sanctify ours and render them 
salutary. We ought in our crosses, in our 
trials, both interior and exterior, in our sick- 
nesses, and still more in our death, to take 
great pains to unite ourselves to our Lord 
afflicted, suffering and dying, and to beg him 



184 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

to bless, to purify, to sanctify and deify our 
afflictions and sufferings. 

We ought to conjure him to distil from his 
sufferings over ours, and from his death ovcr 
our death, a spirit of salvation, grace and life ; 
to shed upon us a dew cf patience, fortitude, 
humility, respect, submission, devotion, silence, 
love, and joy ; so that we may suffer and die 
in a certain degree as he did, that our suffer- 
ings may be, to speak with St. Paul, the 
filling up of his (Coloss. i. 24), and our death 
as it were a sequel and continuation of his ; 
that as we are dead in his death and in him 
as in our head, so he may also die in our death 
and in us as in his members. 

This prayer is of very great importance, 
because our death is the decisive point of our 
salvation and the grand moment on which 
depends our eternal happiness or misery ; for 
this reason it will be very w r ell to repeat it 
frequently during the whole time of Lent, and 
still more frequently during Holy Week, espe- 
cially on Good Friday, which is particularly 
consecrated to the remembrance of our 
Lord's death. 

When in the morning service of that day 
you adore the Cross, recollect yourself and 
summon all your powers to the performance 



For the Season of Lent. 185 

of that devotion, bend the knees of your body 
and still more those of your soul before that 
sacred wood, and beholding upon it the image 
of a crucified One, make first a great act of 
faith in the truth that he who was fastened to 
the cross, whose representation you see, is 
the true God and your sovereign Lord whom 
you worship. 

Secondly, make an act of sincere regret for 
your sins, recognizing and avowing that t hex- 
were the cause of his torments and death ; 
that it was your offences much more than the 
executioners that bound him to the column 
and tore him with scourges, that crowned 
him with thorns, that gave him blows and 
spat in his face, and that finally nailed him to 
the gibbet and caused his death. Conceive a 
penetrating sorrow 7 and perfect repentance, 
and earnestly beg his forgiveness ; say to him 
with the prophet : "What are these wounds 
in the midst of thy hands ?" (Zach. xiii. 6.) 
Why these wounds in thy hands ? Wherefore 
these torments and this death ? Is it not to. 
efface my sins, to pardon them ? Then, I 
beseech thee, efface them, and pardon me ! 
Thou dost sacrifice thyself for me ; thou givest 
me thy blood and thy life ; I cannot give thee 
nearly so much ; but at least I give thee 



1 86 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

a heart contrite and humbled, and a soul 
grieved at having offended thee. "A con- 
trite and humble heart, God, thou wilt not 
despise." (Ps. 1. 19.) Behold the sacrifice 
thou dost ask of me, and which I give thee 
with a firm resolution of never offending thee 
again, but of loving thee with all my strength, 
since I am so strictly bound to do so. 

In the third place, offer your crucified Lord 
countless acts of thanksgiving for all the 
trouble he has taken, all the evils he has 
suffered for your salvation, without which you 
would inevitably be lost forever, and through 
which you may be eternally happy if you 
desire. 

In the fourth place, hope from his bounty 
the grace and all the aids you need ; and 
then in detail ask them of him, recommend- 
ing to him your salvation and the hour of your 
death, and supplicating him by his wounds, 
his blood, and his death, to apply their virtue 
and merits to yours and to render it pleasing 
to him — to render it for you the gate of lite 
and the entrance into that abode where you 
can honor him, adore him, praise him, love 
him, and thank him eternally for all he has 
done and suffered for you. After this, in the 
•same spirit of faith, adoration, repentance, 



For the Season of Lent. 187 

love, gratitude, hope, and supplication, kiss 
his sacred wounds. 



III.— THE VIRTUES. 
i. Imitation. 

It would be something terrible indeed, and 
worthy of severe punishment if, after God has 
taken so much pains, and has been pleased to 
suffer so many evils to give us examples and 
patterns of virtue, we should pass them by, 
caring not to make use of them. 

This is why we are exhorted to " Look, and 
make it according to the pattern that was 
shown thee in the mount." (Exod. xxv. 40.) 
Look, look attentively at what is passing on 
the mountain of Calvary, and imitate as closely 
as thou canst what is there shown thee. Con- 
sider the excellence of the model, the perfec- 
tion of the acts he shows thee, the mercy 
with which he shows them, and his design. 

His excellence is infinite since he is God ; 
the perfection of what he shows, of the virtues 
he teaches, is complete in every way ; his 
mercy is extreme since it moved him to sub- 
ject himself to so much misery and to endure 
so many sufferings ; and his design is thy 
salvation and beatitude. " Jesus Christ," says 



1 88 Practice of Unioii zvith Our Lord 

St. Peter, " suffered for us, leaving you an 
example that you should follow his steps." 
(I. Pet. ii. 21.) 

It is a sovereign honor to imitate God be- 
cause he is the most excellent model that can 
be proposed ; if there is more glory in painting 
after an Apelles or a Raphael than after an 
ignoble artist, it is certainly infinitely more 
honorable to take our Lord for our pattern 
than man in whom there must always be some 
fault. 

Moreover, it is infinitely useful and advan- 
tageous to us to follow such a model, not 
only because there is nothing in him for us to 
fear, he being the highest degree of all possible 
perfection/but also because he inspires us with 
the strength and gives us the skill to imitate 
him ; still further, because the sign and assur- 
ance of our predestination and salvation con- 
sist in our resemblance to our Lord, and 
particularly to our Lord crucified who has 
merited for us on the cross the graces of pre- 
destination and salvation, and all the blessings 
we shall ever possess. St. Paul says : "May 
I be found in him . . . being made con- 
formable to his death." (Phil. iii. 9, to.) If I 
would find myself in Jesus Christ and have in 
him my salvation and my beatitude, I must 



For tJie Season of Lent. 189 

assume the figure of his death, I must bear 
the likeness of his passion, I must exhibit in 
myself the virtues he practiced on the cross. 

This is absolutely necessary to whosoever 
desires to be saved, and it is the reason why 
the same Apostle wrote to the Romans : 
ki Heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ ; yet so if we suffer with him, that we 
may be also glorified with him." (Rom. viii. 
17.) You have received in baptism the spirit 
of adoption of the children of God, of whom 
consequently you are heirs, and co-heirs with 
his Son Jesus Christ, provided always that you 
suffer with him, for except on this condition 
the thing is impossible. And St. Paul writes 
the same thought to his disciple Timothy : "A 
faithful saying. For if we be dead with him, 
we shall live also with him. If we suffer, we 
shall also reign with him." (II. Tim. ii. 11.) 
It is an indisputable truth and one of the 
chief articles of our faith, that if we die to sin 
with Jesus Christ we shall live gloriously with 
him, if we share his sufferings we shall be 
admitted to the enjoyment of his blessings. 
St. John says the same: " Partner in trib- 
ulation, and in the kingdom and patience 
in Christ Jesus." (Apoc. i. 9.) Participating 
in the tribulation and in the kingdom ! These 



190 Practice of Union zvitli Our Lord 

two things are inseparable, the one from the 
other ; the first cannot be without the second, 
nor the second without the first. Tribulation 
borne in the patience of Jesus Christ leads 
most surely to the kingdom, and the kingdom 
surely follows tribulation well borne. This 
should greatly console and strengthen us in 
our sufferings. 

See, then, the union of the cross and salva- 
tion, the participation of the afflictions and 
blessings, the pains and pleasures, the infamies 
and honors of our Lord, necessary to be mem- 
bers of such a head and to bear the marks of 
cur predestination and eternal happiness. We 
must be crucified with him, we must say with St. 
Paul : " With Christ I am nailed to the cross/' 
(Gal. ii. 19.) I am crucified with Jesus Christ 
as a member is with the head. When our 
Lord was fastened to the cross, his whole 
body was fastened to it ; not only his head 
was upon the cross, but his arms, his legs, all 
his members, not excepting a single one. The 
same thing holds with his mystical body ; all 
its members must be crucified with him, and 
consequently you, too, unless you would re- 
nounce the glorious quality of being of the 
number of his members. 



For the Season of Lent, 191 

2. Humility. 

Our Lord on the cross has given us most 
excellent and finished patterns of all the vir- 
tues, as is easy for any one willing to pay ever 
so slight attention to remark ; but I shall 
confine myself to the four principal ones, hu- 
mility, obedience, patience, and charity, which 
St. Bernard says correspond to the four ex- 
tremities of the cross — humility to the foot, 
obedience to the right arm, patience to the 
left, and charity to the top. 

To commence with humility which St. Paul 
calls the particular virtue of Jesus Christ. 
Was it not unequaled in him when he abased 
himself at the feet of his apostles, and yet 
more, at the feet of a traitor, to wash them ? 
when he was seized and sold for only thirty 
pieces of silver, and thus was horribly con- 
temned since the least thing in him was worth 
more than all imaginable worlds, was of a 
value absolutely infinite on account of the 
infinite dignity of his person ? when he was 
placed beneath Barabbas, when the people 
cared more for an infamous murderer than for 
him who was innocence and sanctity ? when 
they gave him blows which are the most cut- 
ting insults a man of position and spirit can 



1 92 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

receive ? when they plucked out his beard 
as though he were a knave who did not de- 
serve to be a man nor to bear the sign of 
manhood ? when they bandaged his eyes to 
tell him that, instead of being the prophet he 
thought himself, he could not see further than 
his nose ? when they put on his shoulders an 
old scarlet robe and in his hand a reed, making 
him appear a ridiculous mock king whose king- 
dom was a true reed, frail, shaky, and hollow ; 
and then a white robe as though he were a 
fool of whom they were making a plaything ? 
when they put on his head a crown of thorns 
as painful as it was infamous ? when they bent 
their knees before him to mock him with gro- 
tesque salutations ? when they harshly struck 
him on his head with the reed, addressing him 
insolent and coarse words ? when they spat in 
his face, and offered him all the other indigni- 
ties their enraged hearts could invent ? 

Finally, they nailed him to a gibbet, which 
was the most ignominious of all punishments 
and deaths ; and this on the Feast of the 
Passover, the most solemn feast of the year, 
in presence of an almost innumerable multi- 
tude of spectators, not in a prison but on a 
mountain, not at night and by the light of 
torches, but at noon in the full light of mid- 



For the Season of Lent. 193 

day ; and between two thieves as though he 
were the most unworthy, the most criminal, 
and the most wicked of all men. 

Behold a part of the humility our Lord prac- 
ticed in his passion ! Reflecting upon it St. 
Paul had good reason to say u He humbled 
himself." (Philipp. ii. 8.) And our Lord him- 
self, speaking by the mouth of David, says : 
" I am a worm, and no man ; the reproach of 
men, and the outcast of the people." (Ps. 
xxi. 7.) Seeing me so abused and disgraced, 
who would take me for a man ? Isaiah calls 
him "the most abject of men (Is. liii. 3), be- 
cause he was abased and humiliated more than 
any man of any condition ever was before. 

And has not our Lord performing such pro- 
digious acts of humility and lowering himself 
to such depths, a good right to say to us : 
" Learn of me, because I am meek and humble 
of heart ?" (Matt. xi. 29.) And have not we 
a strict obligation to imitate him ? If we do 
not, are we not worthy of severe punishments ? 
God humbled himself and put himself beneath 
all to give us an example, and w T e still wish to 
raise ourselves up ? What pride can be found 
in any human heart that the humility of a God 
cannot cure ? 

"When," says St. Bernard speaking to our 
17 



TQ4 Pi' act ice of Union zvith Onr Lord 

Lord and then to us, W when, my Lord, thou 
didst kneel before Judas who thou didst know 
had formed the horrible design of betraying 
thee and plotting thy death, and with thy 
most holy hands didst touch, didst bathe and 
wipe his accursed feet that w r ere impatient to 
go to shed thy blood — O man ! O dust ! O 
ashes, who seest this ! canst thou yet be 
proud and have a haughty spirit ? Consider 
Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe and 
the dread Judge of the living and the dead, 
in his humility and meekness bending the knee, 
prostrating himself before a man, the most 
villainous, the most perfidious of all men, the 
man who betrayed him ; learn how he is truly 
meek and humble of heart, and be confused 
at thy pride." Thus discourses St. Bernard. 
(Bern. Serm. de Passione.) 

In another place, considering the power of 
our Lord's humility to make us embrace that 
virtue, he says: "Why, think you my bre- 
thren, did the God of Majesty humble and 
annihilate himself, if it were not to oblige you 
to do the same ? Therefore I earnestly entreat 
you not to permit that he should give you use- 
lessly so precious an example, but to endeavor 
to form yourself upon it. Love humility which 
is the foundation and guardian of all the vir- 



For the Season of Lent. 195 

tues ; practice it in your thoughts, your affec- 
tions, your words and works, not letting it 
appear that man should find it difficult .to 
humble himself when God stooped so low." 
(Bern. Serm. I. in Nat. Dom.) 

Our Lord after having humbled himself 
before his apostles, and having washed their 
feet, said to them: "I have given you an 
example, that as I have done to you, so you 
do also. Amen, amen, I say to you, the serv- 
ant is not greater than his lord" (Jno. xiii. 15, 
16.); neither are you more exalted than I. 

Likewise St. Paul says : " Let this mind be in 
you, which was also in Christ Jesus." (Philipp. 
ii. 5.) Adopt the sentiments of humility which 
Jesus Christ had, follow the example he has 
given you, repeat frequently to yourself these 
words : " He humbled himself." (Philipp. ii. 8.) 
See him in his humiliations, see him loaded 
with opprobrium and contempt, and realize 
that he says to you again and again : " Learn 
of me, because I am meek and humble of 
heart " (Matt. xi. 29), in order that you should 
do your best to imitate me. 

j. Obedience. 

Saint Paul speaking of the obedience our 
Lord practiced in his passion, says: " He 



196 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

humbled himself, becoming obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross." (Philipp. 
ii. 8.) See in what manner, and how far our 
Lord teaches us to obey. 

He obeyed his Father so far as to suffer 
death, which is what nature dreads most ; and 
not an ordinary death, but the most frightful 
of all, the death of the ci oss. He obeyed 
most wicked judges, doing and enduring what- 
ever they commanded ; he obeyed the soldiers 
and executioners, going and coming as they 
wished, standing or sitting according to their 
pleasure, giving his hands, his feet, his head, 
his shoulders, and all parts of his body without 
any resistance, for them to exercise upon 
them all their rage could suggest. 

Whence he tells us by Isaiah : " The Lord 
God hath opened my ear, and I do not resist ; 
I have not gone back. I have given my body 
to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that 
plucked them. I have not turned away my 
face from them that rebuked me and spit upon 
me." (Is. 1. 5, 6.) 

The Lord God has opened my ear as the 
organ of obedience to hear his will and exe- 
cute it ; he has made me know he desired that 
after having suffered extreme agonies, I should 
die on a gibbet for his glory and the salvation 



For the Season of Lent. 197 

of men. I have heard with respect this de- 
cree ; although so terrible I have not contra- 
dicted nor opposed it, but have received it 
with submission, and have accomplished it 
heartily. I have abandoned my soul to sad- 
ness, my body to torments, my brow to thorns, 
my shoulders to scourges, my eyes to tears, 
my ears to insults, my tongue to gall, my 
hands and feet to nails, and I have not turned 
away my face from those that spat upon it 
and covered it with blows, "becoming obedi- 
ent unto death, even the death of the cross. " 
(Philipp. ii. 8.) 

Adam would not obey God his Creator and 
his Sovereign Lord, by abstaining from a for- 
bidden fruit, though in the midst of an abund- 
ance of others the use of which was permitted 
him. The Son of God obeyed wicked judges 
and cruel executioners even to suffering all 
possible severities, even to death, and to the 
death of the cross ; he obeyed so far for love 
of us. 

After this, ought we to find any difficulty in 
obeying, and submitting for love of him to 
small and reasonable requirements ? St. Ber- 
nard says on this subject : " Learn, O man, to 
obey ; learn, O earth, to submit thyself ; learn, 
O dust, to do the will of others ! God has 



198 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

done man's will, and thou desirest to rule ! 
And by this means thou presumest to prefer 
thyself to thy Creator, since he humbled him- 
self beneath man!" ''Would to God," con- 
tinues this saint, " that as often as I have the 
accursed thought of esteeming myself more 
than others, of preferring myself to any one, 
our Lord would make me the reproach he 
made his apostle : ' Go behind me, Satan, 
because thou savorest not the things that are 
of God.'" (Matt. xvi. 23.) 

Let us learn, then, from the example of our 
Lord to subject ourselves ; and when an occa- 
sion presents itself of performing an act of 
obedience, and we find it difficult either on the 
part of our judgment or our will, or as regards 
the exterior execution, let us* represent to 
ourselves our Lord submissive and obedient. 
Let us breathe him into us in his heroic prac- 
tice of that virtue, and let us stifle all our 
feelings- of resistance by the strength and 
sweetness of these words which we should 
repeat many times : " He humbled himself, 
becoming obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross" (Philipp. ii. 8), and that for me. 

Let us accustom ourselves to break our will 
in everything, disregarding its tenacity ; let us 
look upon it as our most dangerous enemy, as 



For the Season of Lent. 199 

the source of all our troubles, the principle of 
all our sins, and the root of all our evils. 

</. Patience. 

y Patience is necessary for you, that doing 
the will of God, you may receive the promise," 
says St. Paul. (Hebr. x. 36.) You need pa- 
tience to do the will of God, and thus become 
worthy of the beatitude he has promised you 

No one ever practiced patience more per- 
fectly, nor taught it to us in a more excellent 
manner, than our Lord during his life, and 
still more in his passion. "All the actions of 
Christ," says St. Cyprian, "from his entrance 
into the w r orld, were accompanied and marked 
by patience." St. Cyprian goes on to prove 
this by the details of our Lord's life and death, 
and then concludes with these words : " Our 
Lord suffered without any interruption until 
his death, until patience attained in him the 
height of its perfection." (Cypr. 1. de bona 
Patient.) 

Truly his life was but a continual suffering, 
a tissue of all sorts of sorrows ; for he suffered 
from the first moment of life until it was cut 
off by the violence of most cruel torments 
upon a gibbet ; he suffered the privation of 
earthly goods, living always in extreme pov- 



200 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

erty ; he suffered 'in his honor a thousand 
opprobriums, being called a blasphemer, an 
exciter of sedition, a drunkard, a man pos- 
sessed by the devil ; he suffered in his doc- 
trine, passing for an idiot, a fool, and an 
imposter ; in his power, being taken for a 
magician holding communication with the 
devil, through whose art he worked his mira- 
cles ; in short, he suffered in all parts of his 
body, and in all the faculties of his soul. 

For this reason Isaiah calls him " A man of 
sorrows and acquainted with infirmity." (Is. 
liii. 3.) A man filled with sorrows and who knew 
well from experience what it was to suffer and 
be afflicted. He was in so pitiful a condition,, 
so disfigured, that the same prophet assures 
us he could not be recognized and might be 
taken for a leper. " And we have seen him 
and there was no sightliness, and we have 
thought him as it were a leper." (Is. liii. 2, 4.) 
There being no part of his body from the soles 
of his feet to the crown of his head that was 
not afflicted and sick. 

He himself utters by the mouth of the 
prophet Jeremiah these sad words : " O all ye 
that pass by the way, attend, and see if there 
be any sorrow like to my sorrow." (Lam. i. 12.) 
All ye that pass through this mortal life, look 



For the Season of Lent. 201 

upon me, see if ever person of any age or con- 
dition suffered so much as I, if ever there was 
sorrow to be compared to mine. 

Let us then bear our crosses and afflic- 
tions after the model of our Lord whom we 
ought very frequently to picture to ourselves 
in the mystery of his passion, and to inhale 
in his suffering state in order that we may 
receive from him strength and courage to sus- 
tain us when we are called to suffer. " Christ 
having suffered in the flesh," says St. Peter, 
"be you also armed with the same thought." 
(i Peter iv. I.) Arm yourself with the thought 
and the remembrance of what Jesus Christ 
suffered during the course of his life and par- 
ticularly in his death, when you have need to 
combat the enemies of your salvation, so that 
you may have courage to gain the victory ; 
this remembrance will serve you as most pow- 
erful offensive and defensive weapons. 

The history of the blessed Elzear relates 
that he had attained such a degree of patience 
that no insult or injury could wound him ; 
whence St. Delphina, his wife and a most pure 
virgin, one day gently reproached him as 
being too insensible. The Saint replied that 
he had not ceased to feel in his interior attacks 
of impatience and motions of anger when 



202 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

injuries were done him, but that he stifled 
them, immediately fixing his thoughts on the 
injuries and outrages our Lord suffered /or 
him, whom desiring to imitate and to do some- 
thing for his love, he said to himself: Ah! 
well, Elzear, when thy servants shall give 
thee blows, when they shall pluck out thy 
beard and spit in thy face, even that will not 
approach what the Son of God endured for 
thee. He repeated to himself again and again 
these words, and kept his mind applied to 
this thought until the imperfect feeling was 
quenched and his spirit calmed. 

This practice is excellent ; and the advice 
is very good, when you feel attacks of impa- 
tience, anger, pride, or disgust, to consider the 
patience, meekness, humility, and charity of 
our Lord, and to apply these virtues to your 
soul as antidotes and sovereign remedies until 
the vicious motion passes and the temptation 
has vanished ; it certainly will vanish if you 
make good use of this means. 

When we endure some evil in body or soul 
our mind naturally turns immediately to think 
of the evil, to reflect upon it, to examine it, 
to consider its causes, circumstances, and con- 
sequences, and we dwell upon it ; hence arise 
trouble, vexations, impatience, anger, desires 



For the Season of Lent. 203 

of vengeance, and many other wrong feelings 
that do not cure the evil but rather make it 
worse. A most important counsel is, when 
you are seized by some affliction to wisely 
turn your mind from it and promptly fix your 
attention on something that will sustain, 
strengthen, and console you, such as the 
paradise that awaits you, the reward that is 
prepared for you if you make a good use of 
this suffering, but especially on our Lord suf- 
fering and crucified for you. 

5. Active Charity. 

Such was the charity of our Lord, who, not 
content with simple affections and words only, 
testified it to us by the most wonderful effects 
and the most undeniable proofs possible ; and 
thus he showed us how we ought to love him : 
" Learn from Jesus Christ," says St. Bernard, 
" how you should love Jesus Christ." St. John 
says he loved us to the end: "Jesus having 
loved his own who were in the world, he loved 
them unto the end." (Jno. xiii. 1.) He loved 
us to the end, to the last extremities, doing 
and suffering for us all that he could do and 
suffer. To love, according to the universal 
opinion, is to desire and to do good to the 
person beloved ; and, if you do him good only 



204 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

by doing- yourself injury and causing yourself 
much suffering, you prove by this that you 
love him more than you love yourself. 

Our Lord has given us his body and his 
soul, his humanity and his divinity, all the 
fruits of his life and death ; he has delivered 
us from all evils and loaded us with all bless- 
ings. This is to love, and to love to the end. 

We must love a man very much in order to 
resolve to die for him, because we have nothing 
that is naturally dearer to us than our life. 
Thus our Lord says that to lay down life for a 
friend is the most evident and perfect sign of 
perfect love. (Jno. xv. 13.) And it is a still 
greater sign of love to die for that friend a 
most painful and infamous death ; and yet 
greater if it is a person of exalted rank who 
dies for a man of low degree from whom he 
has received extreme indignities and cruel 
injuries. You know that our Lord has loved 
us in this manner, and that his love has had 
qualities beyond all that we can imagine. 

He has loved us in ftnem, that is to say for 
a most pure and most disinterested end, re- 
garding only our good. God was not less 
happy before the creation of the world, when 
he lived hidden in himself, than at present, 
when he is honored, praised, and loved by 



For the Season of Lent. 205 

angels and men. As all the hatred and blas- 
phemies of the damned do not diminish his 
felicity, so all the praises and benedictions of 
the saints do not increase it. "If thou sin," 
said Eliu to Job, "what shalt thou hurt him ? 
If thou do justly, what shalt thou give him, 
or what shall he receive of thy hand ? " (Job 
xxxv. 6, 7.) If thou sin, dost thou think to 
do harm to God ? And if thou livest well, 
what wilt thou give him, what will he receive 
from thy hand that will benefit him ? It is to 
us, not to him, that the life and death of our 
Lord has been useful and salutary. 

He has loved us in finem, to the end, with, 
on his part, an inviolable constancy, without 
change or relaxation. As God he has loved 
us from eternity to continue his love through- 
out eternity ; thus he says by Jeremiah : "I 
have loved thee with an everlasting love." 
And as man he has loved us from the first 
moment of his life till his death, and' he will 
love us always. 

He is our model. Learn then, O man, learn 
from Jesus Christ how thou shouldst love Je- 
sus Christ. Consider that his charity toward 
thee was active, and his love effective ; con- 
sider what effects he produced, what proofs 
he has given thee of his love, and endeavor to 

18 



206 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

make return to him in the same proportion. 
An ancient writer very justly says : " Sau- 
guinem dedit, sanguinem debes." He gave thee 
his blood, thou oughtest to give him thine. 
He gave thee his honor, his comfort, his body, 
his soul, and all he possessed ; thou oughtest 
then to return him thy honor, thy comfort, 
and all thou hast. Is this too much ! Is thy 
blood worth his ? Is thy honor equal to his ? 
What comparison is there between thee and 
him ? Do then for him what he has done for 
thee ; and since he has loved thee to these 
extremes, if thou canst not go so far, at least 
love him with all thy heart and with all thy 
strength. 

As a help to this it will be very useful to 
look at our Lord crucified, and to pause to 
consider him attentively ; for as it is not pos- 
sible to remain near a great fire without feel- 
ing the heat, so you cannot see our Lord 
loving you so much as to die for you without 
being touched with love for him. 

Beholding him in his dying state, keeping; 
your eyes for some time fixed upon him, say 
and say again these words, calmly and atten- 
tively : There is my God, my Creator, and 
my Saviour. What has .he done for me, and 
what am I doinsr for him ? What has he 



For the Season of Lent. 207 

suffered for me, and what do I suffer for 
him ? 

What has he given me, and what do I give 
him ? 

How does he love me, and how do I love 
him ? 

How do I intend to love him for the future, 
and as a testimony of my love what will I do 
and suffer for him ? 

And since for this you have need of his 
assistance, earnestly beg him by his excessive 
love for you to grant it to you. 

Gazing upon him, and even taking him in 
your arms, say with St. Ignatius the martyr : 
44 My love has been crucified!" (Ignat. M. 
Ep. ad Rom.) God has been crucified for 
me! Jesus Christ has been hanged on the 
cross for me ! If I should see. a miserable 
man hanged for my sake, I would be touched, 
and I could not help having extraordinary 
feelings for him. This is not a mere man 
who is hanged for me, but the true God, 
the Creator of the universe, Jesus Christ. 
What a powerful motive for contrition and 
love ! 

Therefore, as Jesus Christ has been crucified 
for love of me, I desire also for love of him to 
be crucified, and to nail to his cross my love 



208 Practice of Union ivith Our Lord 

of honors, of pleasures, of riches, of all crea- 
tures, and especially of myself; so that I may 
say with St. Paul : "With Christ I am nailed 
to the cross." (Gal. ii. 19.) My body, my 
soul; my thoughts, my affections, my words, 
and my actions, are nailed to the cross with 
Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. 

So it was that Saint Clare, having, by think- 
ing of our Lord crucified, engraved his image 
on her mind, gazed upon him incessantly, and 
through this gaze felt her heart languish 
and die to all the things of earth, and become 
enkindled with the love of our Lord and the 
desire of poverty and opprobrium, and at the 
same time grow strong to practice, in a heroic 
degree, humility, patience, forbearance, and 
all the virtues. 

IV.— MEDITATIONS. 

(Under this heading Father Saint-Jure re- 
fers to certain chapters of a work called " La 
Vie Illuminative" The Illuminative Life, as 
suitable subjects for the meditations. He also 
suggests that it will be very useful to meditate 
from the Horologe, or Clock of the Passion, 
another part of this book, which is about to 
follow.) 



For the Season of Lent. 209 

V.— READINGS. 

(We again refer the reader to what has been 
said under this heading in Chapter III.) 

VI.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

"With everlasting kindness have I had 
mercy on thee, said the Lord thy Redeemer." 
(Is. liv. 8.) 

" O man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
infirmity." (Ex. Is. liii. 3.) O man of sorrows 
and experienced in suffering, what compassion 
and regret is ours to see thee endure so much ! 

44 What are these wounds in the midst of 
thy hands ? And he shall say : ' With these 
I was wounded in the house of them that 
loved me.'" (Zach. xiii. 6.) "In the house of 
my beloved." (Ibid, juxta septuag.) Lord, 
who has made these wounds that we see in 
thy hands ? He shall reply : It is those who 
ought to love me, and whom I love, who have 
made them and have treated me so outrage- 
ously. 

" From the sole of the foot unto the top of 
the head there is no soundness therein." (Ex. 
Is. i. 6.) From the soles of the feet to the 
crown of the head there is nothing in thee 
which does not suffer, no part, either internal 
or external that is not afflicted. 



2IO Practice of Union ivitli Our Lord 

f ■ He was wounded for our iniquities, he was 
bruised for our sins." (Is. liii. 5.) He has 
been tormented for our sins ; our iniquities 
have brought him to this state, and we are 
the true causes of all his sufferings. What a 
reason for sorrow and contrition ! 

"I am a worm and no man, the reproach 
of men and the outcast of the people/' (Ps. 
xxi. 7.) I am a worm and not a man ; I have 
not been treated as God, nor even as a man, 
but as a worm of the earth, as the reproach 
of men and the outcast of the people. 

u He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, 
and shall be dumb as a lamb before his 
shearer, and he shall not open his mouth." 
(Is. liii. 7.) He shall go to sufferings, to 
ignominies, and to death, as a gentle sheep 
that is led to the slaughter, and as an inno- 
cent lamb that is sheared and makes no cry ; 
he shall not open his lips to defend himself 
nor to complain. "Jesus held his peace," says 
the Holy Gospel. (Matt. xxvi. 63.) Jesus did 
not reply to the questions of the wicked 
judges and the calumnies of his enemies ; and 
in his great suffering and misery he said not a 
word, but preserved a profound silence, a 
wondrous meekness of spirit, and a perfect 



For the Season of Lent. 211 

forbearance toward his persecutors — he opened 
not his mouth. 

"Greater love than this no man hath, that 
a man lay down his life for his friends." (J no. 
xv. 13.) No one can give his friends a greater 
or a more certain proof of love, than to die 
for them. What then is it to die for enemies, 
and for abject and contemptible enemies as 
all sinners are in God's sight. 

"He humbled himself." (Philipp. ii. S.) 
He humbled himself. But how far ? To what 
depths ? 

il Becoming obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross." (Ibid.) He made him- 
self obedient even unto death, and the death 
of the cross. 

THE CLOCK OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD 
JESUS CHRIST. 

While the passion and death of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, as the living sourcp of all the 
graces that flow from Heaven for our salva- 
tion, and the general cause of all the blessings 
we possess or ever will possess, is very useful 
at all times when we apply it to ourselves by 
considerations, affections, and acts of virtue ; 
nevertheless, we must believe that it is espe- 
cially so on the days and at the hours when 



212 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

it was accomplished, just as the sun has more 
light and heat at certain hours of the day than 
at others. 

Expressing" this idea the Book of Ecclesias- 
ticus says : " The sun when he appeareth 
showing forth at his rising, an admirable in- 
strument, the work of the Most High. At 
noon he burneth the earth ; and who can 
abide his burning heat ? As one keeping a 
furnace in the works of heat." (Eccl. xliii. 2, 
3.) The material sun, that admirable in- 
strument of God to produce the operations 
of nature, gives light to the world at its 
rising, and again when it declines and sets, 
but at noon it burns the earth, and we cannot 
endure the intensity of its rays. The Sun of 
Justice, so the doctors of the Church explain, 
the master-piece of the skill of the Most 
High, illumines and warms us at his rising 
which is his birth, and still more at his setting 
which is his death. 

At his meridian, when he was nailed to the 
cross, he fired men with his love. The tor- 
ments he suffered for them are as so many en- 
kindled furnaces ; and where is the soul that 
can endure their heat and not be burned and 
changed into flames ? 

To enlighten you on this subject, we have 



For the Season of Lent. 213 

fashioned and wound up this Clock of the Pas- 
sion of our Lord : if you listen you will hear it 
strike, not two or three strokes, but an infinite 
.number; the incomparable love of our Lord 
for men, performing so many things, and en- 
during so many woes for them ! It will warn 
you to also do and suffer something for his 
love, and to imitate the virtues of which he 
has given you examples. 

This clock will begin to strike at six on 
Thursday evening, and will continue till six 
on Friday evening, for between these hours 
our Lord's passion was accomplished. 

Each hour will contain four things : — 

First, one, and sometimes more than one 
mystery of the passion which- you must repre- 
sent to yourself not as though it took place 
sixteen (eighteen) hundred years ago, but as 
if it were now passing before your eyes, and 
which you must regard with great attention, 
and with a simple, affectionate, silent gaze. 

Secondly, the spirit of the mystery and the 
virtue to be imitated. If we often propose the 
same virtues, do not be astonished ; it will be 
because they are the most important and the 
most necessary, and are not sufficiently under- 
stood and practiced. 



214 Practice of Union with Oar Lord 

Thirdly, the prayer to ask for that spirit and 
that virtue. 

Fourthly, some aspiratory verses having re- 
lation to the mystery. 

You must at each hour apply yourself to 
these four things according as you are able ; 
and because sleep will rob you of some hours, 
you may occasionally vary the order, and 
after having sufficiently occupied yourself 
with the exercises of the day, may leave them 
for some time, and take in their place those 
of the night hours, so as not to be deprived 
of their fruit ; or at least on Thursday even- 
ing before going to rest, or on Friday morn- 
ing at your rising, say the prayers of the hours 
of sleep ; and doubtless you will abridge your 
sleep, if you feel as you ought toward the pas- 
sion of our Lord. 

Father Avila used to say that whoever could 
permit himself to sleep during the whole of 
Thursday night, knowing that our Lord was 
seized Thursday evening, that he spent that 
night in suffering, and that on Friday he died 
on a gibbet for us, was an ingrate toward his 
Saviour, and did not correspond to the magni- 
tude of such a benefit. 

I add as a final suggestion that souls parti- 
cularly attracted to devotion to the passion, 



For the Season of Lent. 215 

need not confine themselves to one hour to 
consider the mystery and perform the other 
exercises assigned to each hour, but may 
devote one, or even several days, if they wish, 
and if they feel their hearts opening, so as to 
draw more nourishment and profit. 

PREPARATION. 

Persuade yourself that our Lord addresses 
you these words of the prophet Jeremiah to 
move you to remember his passion, to look 
upon him in his- sufferings, and to listen to 
this clock: " Remember my poverty and 
transgression (Afflictionis, Heb.), the worm- 
wood, and the gall." (Lam. iii. 19.) Remem- 
ber my poverty, my persecutions, and my af- 
flictions ; Gonsider the gall, the bitterness, and 
all the evils I have endured for thee. Reply 
in the words that immediately follow: "I 
will be mindful and remember, and my soul 
shall languish within me. These things I 
shall think over in my heart, tnerefore will I 
hope. The mercies of the Lord that w T e are 
not consumed, because his commiserations 
have not failed." (Ibid. iii. 20, 21, 22.) 

Yes, I will remember and consider them ; 
and I do not doubt that this will produce in 
me strong impressions and that my soul will 



2i6 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

be, as it were, withered by the wonderful 
•grandeur of the things I recall. 

This poverty, however, these afflictions and 
woes of my Saviour, are sweet to me, because 
they are the foundation of my hopes, and the 
greatest effect of the mercy of God which has 
not failed us and without which we would be 
lost beyond recovery. 

Prayer. 

O Jesus, my dearest Saviour, only hope of 
my soul, grant me grace to bear continually 
and to celebrate worthily the memory of thy 
sacred passion, to enter through the gates of 
faith, hope, charity, and imitation of thee, 
into thy wounds ; where, establishing my 
dwelling, I may forget myself and all crea- 
tures and remember thee alone, to live in thee 
and thee in me all the rest of my days. Amen. 

SIX O'CLOCK THURSDAY EVENING. 

Jesus Christ Washing the Feet of his Apost 
i. The Mystery. 

Our Lord seeing his apostles greatly afflicted 
by the news he had given them that he would 
soon leave them, was touched with compassion, 
and said to them with extreme gentleness and 



For the Season of Lent. z « ; 

tenderness : " Let not your heart be troubled, 
nor let it be afraid. I will not leave you 
orphans. It is expedient to you that I go. £ 
go away, and I come unto you." fjno. xiw 
27, 18 ; xvi. 7 ; xttr: 28.) Because I have told 
you that I must leave you, sadness has taken* 
possession of your hearts ; but be not troubled 
nor afraid ; I will not leave you orphans, 
neither will I abandon you. It is for your 
good that I go ; but I will go in such a man- 
ner that I will soon return to you. 

After having celebrated with them the legal 
Passover, and eaten of the Paschal Lamb, a 
figure of himself in the mysteries of his life 
that were immediately to follow, he desired as 
a sequel to his exemplification of all the vir- 
tues, to unite and condense them into two 
as the principal ones, namely, humility and 
charity. 

And beginning with humility : he rises from; 
the table, lays aside his robe, girds himself 
with a towel, pours water into a basin, and 
then kneeling, washes the feet of his apostles. 

Who would not be astonished and touched 
with devotion at seeing the King of kings and 
the Lord of lords at whose name every knee 
bends and the very columns of heaven trem- 
ble, abased, humiliated, kneeling before his 

19 



2 1 8 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

disciples who are seated, bathing with his 
most pure and most holy hands their unclean 
and offensive feet, carefully and tenderly wip- 
ing them with the towel with which he was 
girded, and then kissing them with his divine 
lips ; passing thus from one to another, mak- 
ing himself their valet in an act so low, in a 
service so abject ? What abasement, what a 
humiliation of the Infinite Majesty of heaven 
and earth, to be thus prostrate before rough, 
coarse persons, before poor sinners, and, what 
is still more astonishing, before a traitor and 
the most wicked of men ! 

2. The Spirit and Virtue of tJie Mystery 

The spirit of this action and its special vir- 
tue are evidently humility, which we are under 
obligation to imitate ; for our Lord, after hav- 
ing performed it, said to his apostles, and to 
us through them.: "-J have given you an 
example, that as I have done to you, so you 
do also." And he had already told us : " Learn 
of me, because I am meek and humble of 
heart." (Matt. xi. 29.) 

j. Prayer. 

O perfect Model of humility ! my Lord 
Jesus Christ, who hast been pleased to assume 



For tJie Season of Lent. 219 

the nature, quality, and employment of a ser- 
vant, and who in that condition didst wash 
the feet of thy apostles ! I pray and beseech 
thee to cleanse me from my pride, my vanity, 
and my good opinion of myself, and to give 
me the spirit and sentiments of true humility 
of heart. Amen. 

4. Aspiratory Verses. 

"He humbled himself." (Philipp. ii. 8.) 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Creator of 
the universe, humbled himself so far as to 
wash the feet of men and of sinners. 

Let us ask with St. Peter: "Lord, dost 
thou wash my feet?" (Jno. xiii. 6.) Dost 
thou abase thine infinite majesty to this ? 
Dost thou thus perform the duties of the 
meanest servants ? 

" If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no 
part with me." (lb. xiii. 8.) If I wash thee 
not, and if by my example and grace I do 
not purify thee from pride, the source of all 
sins, thou shalt never have part with me, but 
I will cut thee off from my society for ever. 

" Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands 
and my head." (lb. xiii. 9.) Ah ! Lord, lest 
that horrible misfortune should befall me, wash 
not only my feet, but even my hands and my 



220 Practice of Union ivith Our Lord 

head. Wash my feet for my affections, my 
hands for my works, my head for my thoughts, 
and purify my whole body, my whole soul 
from my pride and all my stains. 

SEVEN O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Instituting the Blessed Sacrament. 

i. The Mystery. 

Our Lord intending to leave his apostles, 
before withdrawing and bidding them the last 
farewell, gave them the most magnificent 
banquet ever known on earth, since he gave 
himself as the food, his body, his blood, his 
soul, and his divinity, saying to them : " Take 
ye, and eat: This is my body. Drink ye all 
of this, for this is my blood." (Matt. xxvi. 
26, 27, 28.) Take and eat ; what I give you 
is my body. Drink ye all of this chalice ; it 
contains my blood. 

2. The Spirit and Virtue of the Mystery. 

These are chiefly charity and love. Love 
has for its characteristic to desire, and to pro- 
cure by every possible means, the union of 
the person who loves with the one who is 
loved. Our Lord loved men infinitely, and 
this infinite love caused him to invent this 



For the Season of Lent. 221 

admirable and surprising means of uniting 
himself to them as their food ; and food forms 
with the one who receives it, the most inti- 
mate, the most inseparable, and the closest 
of all natural unions. 

Thus St. John speaking of this mystery, 
says : " Having loved his own who were in the 
world, he loved them unto the end." (Jno. 
xiii. 1.) Jesus having loved his own during 
his whole life, loved them still more at its 
close, when he instituted the- Blessed Sacra- 
ment and made of himself, their nourishment, 
so that he might unite himself to them ; he 
desired this union so ardently that he told 
them : " Withr desire I have desired to eat 
this pasch with you before I suffer." (Luke 
xxii. 15.) I have earnestly desired to cele- 
brate this Passover with you before I die and 
leave you. 

The spirit, then, and the special virtue of 
this mystery, 'are the infinite love our Lord 
bears us, and the burning desire this love 
kindles in his heart to unite and give himself 
to us. We ought to exercise the same senti- 
ments toward him with all the fullness of our 
affections, and so much the more as all the 
glory and profit of the union will be for us. 



222 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

j. Prayer. 

O most loving" and most amiable Jesus, 
who, through the excess of thine infinite 
love for us, didst place thyself under the 
species of bread and wine in order to come 
to us, and to unite and give thyself to us ! I 
implore thee by this sacrament of love and 
union, and by all that can move thee, to 
deign to unite me inseparably with thee, to 
transform me into thyself, and by this union 
and transformation to oblige me to give thee 
my body and my soul, so that I may cease 
to belong to myself and may be wholly thine. 
Amen. 

,/. Aspiratory Verses. 

u He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood, abideth in me and I in him." (Jno. vi. 
57.) We are intimately united. 

44 Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebri- 
ated, my dearly beloved." (Cant. v. 1.) Eat, 
my friends, and drink ; and you, my dearly 
beloved, be inebriated with love, so that the 
unequaled testimony I give you of my love 
may produce in a holy manner in your souls, 
forgetfulness of creatures and satisfaction of 
heart. 



For the Season of Lent. 223 

" And after the morsel, Satan entered into 
him." (Jno. xiii. 27.) But we must carefully 
prepare for this divine food, learning wisdom 
at the expense of Judas, into whose soul after 
he had eaten, the devil entered and took new 
possession, thus rendering the Blessed Sacra- 
ment not a communion with Jesus Christ, but 
a disunion and an eternal separation. 

EIGHT O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ giving the New Commandment of Love of 
our Neighbor, and Praying for the Elect. 

/. The Mystery. 

Our Lord, after the washing of the feet of 
his apostles and the institution of the Blessed 
Sacrament, commanded the apostles to love 
one another, saying to them : "These things 
I command you, that you love one another." 
(Jno. xv. 17.) "By this shall all men know 
that you are my disciples, if you have love 
one for another." (Jno. xiii. 35.) I command 
you to love one another, and I desire that by 
this it may be known whether you are my 
disciples or not. 

"A new commandment I give unto you: 
That you love one another as I have loved 
you." (Jno. xiii. 34.) 



224 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

Then jesus prayed to his Father for his 
elect, that they might be protected, sancti- 
fied, and united among themselves by a per- 
fect and entire charity. "Lifting up his eyes 
to Heaven, he said : \ I pray for them ; I 
pray not for the world, but for them whom 
thou hast given me, because they are thine.' " 
(Jno. xvii. 1,9.) I pray not for the world, for 
those who have the spirit of the world, and 
whose hearts are on earth, whose bad life ren- 
ders them unworthy of the happiness thou 
hast prepared for them ; I pray not for them 
as I do pray for the predestinate whom thou 
hast given me, because they belong to thee 
in a particular manner. 

"Holy Father, keep them in thy name, 
whom thou hast given me. I pray not that 
thou shouldst take them out of the world, but 
that thou shouldst keep them from evil." (Jno. 
xvii. 11, 15.) Holy Father, take under thy 
protection those whom thou hast given me ; 
defend them against all the enemies of their 
salvation, so that they may not be lost. I do 
not ask thee to take them from the world, nor 
to deliver them from their afflictions, but to 
give them grace to suffer well, and to preserve 
them from sin. 

"Sanctify them in truth. For them do 1 



For the Season of Lent, 225 

sanctify myself, that they also may be sancti- 
fied in truth." (Jno. xvii. 17, 19.) Sanctify 
them in truth, making them virtuous and 
holy, with a solid virtue, with a true, not an 
apparent holiness. And more, ma'ke them 
virtuous and holy in me who am the truth, 
so that all their virtues may be expressions 
of mine, and all their actions may be animated 
with my spirit, and modeled after my actions. 
I sanctify and sacrifice myself for them, so that 
they may be sanctified and may become holy 
likewise. 

" That they may be one, as we also are ;« 
that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in 
me, and I in thee,; that they also may be one 
in us, that the world may believe that thou 
hast sent me. That they may be one, as we 
also are one ; that they may be made perfect 
in one, and the world may know that thou 
hast sent me." (Jno. xvii. 11, 21, 22, 23.) I 
pray thee, Father, that they may be perfectly 
united, that they may be one in divine char- 
ity, even as we are ; so that the world seeing 
among them such great charity, such perfect 
love, such intimate union, far surpassing the 
weakness of their corrupt nature, may believe 
that I am the true Messiah whom thou hast 
sent, who have obtained for them this grace 



226 Practice of Union witJi Our Lord 

without which it would be impossible for them 
to love one another with such great and such 
pure love. 

2. The Spirit and Virtue of the Mystery. 

They are charity toward our neighbor ; but 
— since it is a new commandment — practiced 
in a new fashion, that is to say, with new 
ardor and after the pattern of our Lord's 
charity. As our Lord has not loved us for 
any natural perfection of either body or soul, 
nor for any worldly advantage we may pos- 
sess, but only in God, for God's glory and 
our salvation, even though we are filled with 
faults ; and as he has loved us so much as to 
suffer for our sakes the death of the cross, we 
ought to love our neighbor in the same man- 
ner and to the same extent. 

Our Lord having come from Heaven to 
earth to establish a law of charity and grace, 
not only between God and men, but also be- 
tween men and their fellow-men, and having 
just instituted for men the Blessed Sacrament, 
and given them as a token of his infinite love 
his body and soul to be their food ; being 
about to endure for their salvation horrible 
torments, and to suffer on a gibbet the most 
painful and ignominious death that was ever 






For the Season of Lent. 227 

known, had undoubtedly a good right to com- 
mand them to love one another, and a most 
certain right to exact their obedience to this 
commandment. 

j. Prayer. 

O my dear and sovereign Lord ! I return 
thee a thousand thanksgivings for this com- 
mandment of love, by which thou hast ac- 
quired for me as many friends, as many pro- 
tectors and benefactors as there are men in 
the world. I beg thee to engrave it deeply in 
their hearts and in mine, so that we may love 
one another as thou hast loved us. May we 
have each for the other a cordial, sincere, dis- 
interested, patient, humble, and discreet char- 
ity. May Ave have but one heart and one soul 
in thee, being ready and disposed, after thy 
example, to bear from one another, and for 
one another, whatever may be necessary for 
the salvation of all. Amen. 

4. Aspiratory Verses. 

The three most celebrated of the apostles 
have left us these remarkable exhortations to 
fraternal charity. 

St. Peter says : " Before all things, have a 



328 Practice of Union ivith Our Lord 

constant mutual charity among yourselves." 
(I. Pet. iv. 8.) 

St. Paul : " Above all things, have charity, 
which is the bond of perfection." (Col. iii. 14.) 

And St. John : " Dearly beloved, let us love 
one another ; in this the children of God are 
manifest and the children of the devil." (1. Jno. 
iv. 7, iii. 10.) 

NINE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Praying in the Garden. 

I. The Mystery. 

Our Lord having withdrawn from his three 
disciples about a stone's throw, began to pray 
to God his Father with most profound respect 
and singular humility. (Luke xxii. 41 ; Matt, 
xxvi. 39; Mark xiv. 35.) He commenced his 
prayer in a kneeling posture ; but after a lit- 
tle he bent his sacred body and placed his 
face against the earth, so great w 7 as his rev- 
erence for the majesty of God. 

His solicitude for his disciples having caused 
him to leave his prayer once, and twice, to go 
and see what they were doing, and having 
found them overcome by weariness and sleep 
on account of watching with him, he awakened 
them and encouraged them to pray, then re- 



For the Season of Lent. 229 

turned to continue his supplications. And 
while he prayed he was desolate beyond our 
power of expression, and assailed by that 
fearful sadness and that horrible anguish of 
heart which reduced him to the agony of 
death, and caused him to lose, in the form of 
sweat, pure blood ; still he did not abandon 
his prayer, but on the contrary continued it 
with increased earnestness, and the more he 
was combated and attacked by sadness the 
more he prayed and persevered in praying. 

2. The Virtue. 

It is clear that it is prayer. 

Our Lord desiring to open the bloody com- 
bat of his passion, and to do the grandest and 
most difficult thing that was ever done, that 
is, to destroy the devil, sin, and death, and to 
save the human race, entered the arena by 
supplication and armed with prayer. 

His prayer was humble, respectful, fervent, 
persevering, and resigned in the most perfect 
degree. 

And this was to teach us that in our strug- 
gles and temptations, in our times of sadness 
and in all. our trials, w r e should have recourse 
to prayer, and should accompany our prayer 
with humility, reverence, devotion, fervor, per- 

20 



230 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

severance, and resignation, making it resemble 
our Lord's prayer in the Garden. 

J. Prayer, 

my dear Saviour and my divine Master, 
all of whose actions are my instructions and 
my riches ! I beg thee by the merit of thy 
prayer to teach me to pray, and thus fulfill in 
me the promise thou didst make by thy pro- 
phet when thou didst say: " I will pour out 
upon the house of David, and upon the inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of 
prayers." (Zach. xii. 10.) Grant that all my 
prayers may be animated with thy spirit, and 
accompanied by the conditions of thy prayer. 
Amen. 

^. Aspiratory Verses. 

Watch ye, and pray, that ye enter not into 
temptation." (Matt. xxvi. 41.) To be overcome 
by it. 

" Pray without ceasing." (l. Thess. v. 17.) 
As you have constant need of the grace and 
assistance of God to enable you to avoid sin, 
to practice virtue and save your soul, therefore 
ask for it constantly and pray without ceasing. 

" Cry to me, and I will hear thee." (Jerem. 



For the Season of Lent. 231 

xxxiii. 3.) Cry to me in prayer and I will 
answer thee ; if thou do not cry, I will not 
hear thee ; my ears are shut up and deaf to 
all voices save clamors and petitions made 
with affection and effort. 

TEN O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Disposed and Resigned to Suffer. 

I. The Mystery. 

Our Lord considering all the torments of 
soul and body which he was about to suffer, 
the inferior part of his nature was exceedingly 
alarmed and filled with terrible apprehensions ; 
whence that prayer to God his Father to spare 
him those torments and not to oblige him to 
drink that chalice of bitterness. But the su- 
perior part rising above that alarm and appre- 
hension, made a heroic act of resignation, 
'of absolute abandonment to his Father's will, 
saying: "But yet not my will, but thine be 
done." (Luke xxii. 42.) Behold me ready to 
suffer all that shall please thee. " I am ready 
for scourges, and my sorrow is continually 
before me." (Ps. xxxvii. 10.) I have con- 
tinually before my eyes my sorrow and all the 
woes thy justice dost prepare for me to expiate 



232 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

the sins of men ; I am disposed to receive 
them. He saw his sufferings, the insults that 
would be offered him, all his torments one 
after the other, and looked upon them with 
submission and respect, desiring them, and 
welcoming them in spirit. 

2. The Virtue, 

It is resignation, annihilation of our will in 
everything. In order to imitate our Lord, re- 
present to yourself all possible ills of body 
and soul, exterior and interior, temporal and 
eternal, excepting sin only; after having con- 
sidered them attentively, make in union with 
our Lord a generous act of resignation, and of 
offering of yourself to endure them, even though 
you see among them the loss of your property, 
the deprivation of your comfort, the ruin of 
your honor, and your complete annihilation. 

Continue to regard these objects of terror 
until you feel your interior growing calm, your 
resistance dying, and your will submitting ab- 
solutely to God's will to suffer whatever he 
shall desire. And later when it becomes ne- 
cessary for you to practice this submission, re- 
member the example of our Lord, and remem- 
ber your resolution ; and reflect how God's 



For the Season of Lent. 233 

will is the wisest, the holiest, and the best 
in every way, and that you cannot perform a 
more prudent action, nor one more honorable 
and useful, than to follow it blindly. 

J. Prayer. 

O good Jesus, who for love of me didst re- 
sign and submit thyself to thy Father's will, 
to endure the excessive sufferings of thy pas- 
sion and death ! I beseech thee by the merit 
of thy resignation and submission to give me 
the grace to never resist God's providence in 
my regard, but to yield to him entire author- 
ity over my body, my soul, and all that in 
time or eternity may belong to me. Amen. 

4.. Aspiratory Verses. 

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
Heaven." (Matt. vi. 10.) May thy will be 
done on earth and in me, as it is in Heaven — ■ 
all that thou wiliest, and in the manner thou 
wiliest. 

"Yea, Father ; for so hath it seemed good 
in thy sight." (Matt. xi. 26.) Yes, Father, 
let it be so, since it pleases thee. 



234 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

ELEVEN O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ in his Sadness, his Agony, and his Bloody 
Sweat. 

I. The Mystery. 

One of the saddest and most lamentable 
objects that was ever beheld, was our Lord 
in the Garden of Olives, where he was assailed 
by extreme sadness and weariness, and a de- 
solation so terrible, caused by the clear and 
distinct vision of all the woes he was about to 
suffer, of all the sins of men, of the misfortunes 
they were bringing upon themselves, of the 
injuries God would receive from them, of the 
small number of those who would profit by 
his death and would be saved, and of the im- 
mense multitude who would be lost, that he 
said to his three most confidential apostles 
whom he had taken with him : " My soul is 
sorrowful even unto death." (Matt. xxvi. 38.) 
My soul suffers such distress and such violent 
anguish of heart, that if I did not by my omni- 
potence restrain it in my body it would depart, 
and you would see me fall dead before you. 

The inferior part of his soul which had a 
horror of death, and was terribly alarmed and 
frightened by the vision of the cruel sufferings, 
the bloody insults, and the multitude of fear- 



For the Season of Lent. 235 

ful woes prepared for him, and the superior 
part which was resolute and submissive to the 
will of the Eternal Father, sustained a combat 
so great and furious that our Lord fell beneath 
the struggles in agony, and, as it were, faint- 
ing ; so that his Father sent him an angel 
to console and comfort him. And notwith- 
standing this succor, he experienced such a 
disturbance and such an overthrowing in his 
soul and body, because of the terrible encoun- 
ter of the adverse parts of his human nature, 
that the pores of his body opened, and his 
blood flowed forth abundantly until it stained 
the ground, just as the perspiration issues from 
the pores of a sick man in the crisis of his 
disease. 

2. The Spirit of the Mystery. 

It is compassion for so mournful a condition 
of a person so eminent, so holy, and so near 
to us, and whom our sins have brought to this 
pitiful state. 

This should cause us to conceive an extreme 
regret and to experience a most lively repent- 
ance. 

And as our sins and vices are the true causes 
of our Lord's desolation, agony, and bloody 
sweat, the healing and consoling angel that 



236 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

we can and ought to send him, is the correc- 
tion of our vices and the reformation of our 
life. Therefore, do not neglect to console him 
thus. 

j. Prayer. 

most desolate Jesus, overwhelmed by 
sorrow for me and through me ! I implore 
thee to give me grace to enter into the know- 
ledge and appreciation of thy sadness and 
agony, and by their merit to bear in imitation 
of thee, all my sadness and desolations. I 
behold thy blood flowing abundantly from thy 
body. Ah ! Lord, do not permit that most 
precious liquor, that sovereign balm, capable 
of saving ten thousand worlds, to fall use- 
lessly upon the earth. But4et it fall upon my 
soul to purify and sanctify it, upon my under- 
standing to dissipate its darkness, upon my 
will to break its obstinacy, upon my passions 
to rule them, and upon all my wounds to heal 
them. Amen. 



^. Aspiratory Verses. 

" He began to grow sorrowful and to be 
sad." (Matt. xxvi. 37.) u He began to fear 
and to be heavy." (Mark xiv. 33.) Our Lord 






For tJie Season of Lent. 237 

entering the Garden of Olives, began to be 
sad, to have fears and terrors. 

"My soul is sorrowful even unto death; 
stay you here and watch. " (Mark xiv. 34.) 
My soul is sad and desolate even unto death ; 
stay here and watch the lamentable state to 
which I am reduced for your sakes, in which 
your sins have placed me ; if I pour out from 
my whole body tears of blood to efface your 
sins, you ought at least to shed a few tears 
from your eyes to wash them away. 

MIDNIGHT. 

Jesus Christ Betrayed by Judas and Seized by the 
Officers of Justice. 

1. The Mystery. 

Judas taking no care to guard his heart or 
to rule his passions, but allowing himself to 
be overcome by his avarice, gave entrance to 
the devil, who prompted him to form the 
accursed and unfortunate design of betraying 
and selling his good Master. (Luke xxii, 3.) 
Thereupon he went to find the chief priests 
and the magistrates, and made a bargain w T ith 
them to deliver Jesus to them for the sum of 
thirty pieces of silver ; after which he returned 
to the company of our Lord, concealing his 



238 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

perfidious plan and awaiting an occasion to 
execute it. 

Our Lord having finished his prayer in the 
Garden of Olives, went to waken his three 
disciples whom he had allowed to sleep for a 
little while, saying to them : \\ Arise now, you 
have slept enough. Behold the hour is come 
in which the Son of Man will be betrayed into 
the power of sinners. Behold the traitor who 
has sold me and will deliver me, approaches." 
Then he advanced boldly before them. 

Judas, who marched at the head of a band 
of soldiers, of officers of justice, and servants, 
approaches our Lord and addresses him : 
44 Hail, Rabbi ! And he kissed him." (Matt. 
xxvi.49.) Our Lord replied : " Friend, where- 
to art thou come ?" (lb. xxvi. 50.) Judas, 
dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss ?" 
(Luke xxii. 48.) Here, behold the blackest 
malice, the most horrible perfidy ever on 
record, and which was to our Lord an atro- 
cious injury. 

First : because it was done to him by his 
disciple, his apostle whom he had singularly 
loved and honored, and to whom he had con- 
fided the ? alms he had received. 

Secondly : because it was accomplished 



For the Season of Lent. 239 

with a kiss which is one of the most certain 
ways men have of expressing friendship. 

Thirdly : because by a kiss it betrayed him 
and placed him in the power of his mortal 
enemies, w r ho intended to subject him to the 
painful and ignominious death of the Cross. 

But what did our Lord do ? As Judas ap- 
proached to kiss him, our Lord, who penetrated 
that disloyal heart and saw its wicked design, 
did not draw back nor turn aside his face, did 
not get angry and call him a traitor, a per- 
fidious monster, or any other name worthy of 
his crime, but paused to await him, allowed 
him to come near, to touch and kiss him with 
his infamous and accursed lips, and with inef- 
fable sweetness and unparalleled gentleness, 
said to him : " Friend, why art thou come ? 
what brings thee here ?" As though wishing 
to say : "Even while thou dost come to me 
as my mortal and most cruel enemy, I have 
for thee the heart and the affection of a true 
friend ; I offer thee my friendship and my 
grace if thou wilt accept it ; I present it to 
thee gladly ; on my part, I desire thee to take 
it and use it for thy salvation." 

And desiring to warn him of his sin chari- 
tably and sweetly, wishing to make him re- 
cognize it and then conceive regret for it, and 



240 Practice of Union with Gur Lord 

to ask and obtain its pardon, he said to him : 
"Judas, is it thus that thou dost betray the 
Son of Man with a kiss ? " As though mean- 
ing to say: " Consider what it is thou art 
doing, what thou art undertaking. Reflect 
upon what I have done for thee, and what 
thou art doing against me ; how since the 
time I took thee into my company, and made 
thee my apostle, I have, by my doctrine, my 
example, and my benefits, not ceased to do 
thee good ! What evil have I ever done thee ? 
And now thou betrayest me ! And with a kiss, 
the sign of love, thou dost exercise toward me 
the most cruel hatred that was ever known ! 
Thou dost deliver me to the fury of my ene- 
mies who will kill me ! " 

After this, the soldiers of all those agents 
of hell having power over our Lord, fell upon 
him like so many hungry wolves upon a gentle, 
innocent lamb, seized him, and bound him. 

2. The Virtues, Humility and Fear. 

A man abandoned by God is a fearful ob- 
ject. The atmosphere illumined by the sun 
at midday is not more different from the same 
atmosphere in the obscurity and darkness of 
midnight, than is a man in that state from the 
same man -in the state of grace — whatever may 



For the Season of Lent. 24 1 

have been the degrees of grace, of light, of 
supernatural gifts, and of holiness to which he 
was raised, his fallen state is not less terrible 
on their account. Judas, the servant of our 
Lord, the familiar friend of Christ, honored by 
him with the high dignity of the apostleship, 
instructed by his lessons, loaded with his gifts, 
filled with his graces and working miracles, 
sells his Lord, his Benefactor, and his God ! 
sells him for thirty pieces of silver ! and after 
betraying him with a kiss ! delivers him into 
the hands of his enemies ! and thus commits 
the greatest crime that w r as ever perpetrated 
by man ! from his high elevation falls into 
the profoundest depths of the abyss ! Let the 
thought of this fill us with fear, let us humble 
ourselves, let us carefully watch over ourselves 
in even the smallest things, lest we fall. Ju- 
das did not reach his state by a first leap ; he 
fell gradually, little by little ; light faults led 
him on to graver, and these to the most hor- 
rible of all. 

J. Prayer. 

O good Jesus, my only ' liberator, who 
through an excess of kindness didst allow 
thyself to be taken and bound for me ! I im- 
plore thee by the merits of thy bonds to break 

21 



242 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

the bonds of my sins, of my affection for crea- 
tures and for myself, and to bind me closely, 
to unite me inseparably to thee, so that I may 
never offend thee. O my Lord ! how the trea- 
son of Judas, how the bargain he made of thee, 
and the kiss he gave thee, affright me ! Hold 
me fast, bind me closely to thee, so that I 
cannot fall. Amen. 

4. Aspiratory Verses. 

" The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord, 
is taken in our sins." (Lam. iv. 20.) The 
breath of our mouth, our Lord Jesus Christ, 
has been taken in our sins, and our iniquities 
are the cords that were used to seize and bind 
him. 

"He hath sold the just man for silver, and 
the poor man for a pair of shoes." (Amos ii. 
6.) He hath lowered the just, the most ex- 
alted of the just, and the infinite Majesty of 
God to the value of silver, and hath sold the 
poor, Jesus Christ, at a vile price, the price of 
a pair of shoes ! Alas ! have you never sold 
our Lord for a vapor of honor, for a trifling 
gain, or for a shameful pleasure ? 

"Judas, dost thou betray the Son of Man 
with a kiss ? (Luke xxii. 48.) To make an 
unworthy Communion is to give our Lord the 



For the Season of Lent. 243 

kiss of a traitor, the kiss of Judas. Will you 
become a second Judas ? To make reparation 
in some sort,' and as is in your power, for the 
outrageous and treacherous kiss of Judas, give 
our Lord in your Communions and in your 
devotions, kisses of faith, of reverence, adora- 
tion, offering of yourself, confidence, and love. 

ONE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ before Caiphas. 

7. The Mystery. 

The soldiers leading our Lord with great 
noise and loud shouts into the city of Jerusa- 
lem, brought him first to Annas, who after 
having feasted his eyes till they were satisfied 
on the agreeable spectacle, sent him still 
bound to his son-in-law Caiphas, who was 
the high-priest of that year. Caiphas having 
already had news of this capture which he had 
so long desired, had assembled in his house the 
priests, the scribes, and the ancients of the 
people ; before these our Lord was presented, 
maliciously questioned, falsely accused, most 
unjustly condemned, and judged to be worthy 
of death as a wicked man, a villain, and a 
blasphemer ; then his eyes were bandaged, 
the soldiers and servants gave him blows, 



244 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

spat in his face, mocked him, and heaped on 
him all kinds of insults. "They blind-folded 
him, and smote his face. And they asked 
him, saying : ' Prophesy, who is it that struck 
thee ? ' And blaspheming, many other things 
they said against him." (Luke xxii. 64, 65.) 
"Then did they spit in his face, and buffet 
him, and others struck his -face with the 
palms of their hands." (Matt. xxvi. 6j.) 

2. The Virtues of the Mystery. 

Represent to yourself the modesty, the 
meekness, the patience, the silence, and 
humility of our Lord, under those false ac- 
cusations, those iniquitous judgments, that 
condemnation to death, and all those out- 
rages ; and remember he is your model. Can 
you profess to be the disciple of such a Mas- 
ter, you who are so delicate, so sensitive to 
the least thing that is done or said against 
you, and offends ever so slightly your honor, 
or your pleasure and interest ? 

3. Prayer. 

O perfect Mirror of patience and humility ! 
I pray thee by the merit of the virtues thou 



For the Season of Lent. 245 

didst exercise before Caiphas, to give me the 
grace to imitate them when I have occasion, 
and to profit by thy example. Amen. 

/. Aspiratory Verses. 

" Unjust witnesses rising up, have asked me 
things I knew not." (Ps. xxxiv. 11.) They 
brought false witnesses against me who ac- 
cused me of crimes I had never thought of ; 
and they asked me things I had no knowledge 
of. 

''When the sinner stood against me I was 
dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence 
from good things." (Ps. xxxviii. 2, 3.) When 
the sinner accused me falsely, and endeavored 
to defame my innocence with his calumnies, I 
replied nothing ; he said to me most sharp 
and humiliating things, and although I might 
have replied much to justify myself, I spoke 
not a word. 

"Jesus held his peace." (Matt. xxvi. 63.) 
Jesus through all his persecutions kept silence, 
even when he was urged to reply. 



246 Practice vf Union with Our Lord 

TWO O'CLOCK. 

Jeuss Christ Abandoned by his Apostles and Denied 
by St. Peter. 

/. The Mystery. 

The disciples seeing our Lord seized, all 
abandoned him and fled. " The disciples all 
leaving him, fled." (Matt. xxvi. 56.) St. Peter 
is more prominent in this mystery because he 
denied our Lord three times in the house of 
Caiphas ; at the question of a servant he swore 
not only that he was not one of his disciples, 
but that he did not even know him. i% He 
denied with an oath : That I know not the 
man." (Matt. xxvi. 72.) " He began to curse 
and to swear, saying, I know not this man of 
whom you speak." (Mark xiv. 71.) 

2. The Virtues of the Mystery. 

Humility, fear, mistrust of self, and flight 
of occasions of sin. 

Who will not fear and mistrust his strength, 
seeing the apostles so weak, and on so impor- 
tant an occasion, when it was necessary, if 
ever, to show courage and fidelity ? They 
abandoned their Master like cowards, after 
having spent three years in his company, 



For the Reason of Lent, 247 

after having" heard such holy instructions, seen 
so many miracles', received so many graces, 
and after having quite recently communicated 
and been strengthened with our Lord's body 
and blood given to them by his own hands. 

Who will not fear still more at seeing St, 
Peter, Christ's first minister and chief apostle, 
who from the benefits and favors he had re- 
ceived was under even greater obligations of 
fidelity than the others, who had promised so 
solemnly that he would be faithful, though all 
the rest should deny their Lord — at seeing him 
deny that same Lord three times, and not in 
simple language, but with an oath, with horrible 
imprecations and curses — -and not at the threat 
of a severe judge, or of an armed soldier hold- 
ing a sword over his neck, but at the voice of 
a miserable servant-maid ? O wonderful weak- 
ness ! O extreme frailty of man ! Alas ! if 
the pillars of the Church fall so lamentably, 
what w r ill become of feeble reeds ? If giants 
are thus overthrown, how can little children 
stand without a most special grace from our 
Lord ? Therefore we must ask for this grace 
constantly and earnestly. 

So long as St. Peter was with our Lord he 
did not fall ; soon as he left him, behold him 
in the dust. " Thou turnedst away thy face 



248 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

from me, and I became troubled " (Ps. xxix. 
8), said David. Thou didst turn thy face from 
me so that I no longer saw thee, and at the 
same moment I felt my spirit troubled and 
my strength failing. Let us keep ourselves 
close to Jesus Christ and look upon him con- 
stantly, so that he may always preserve us. 

The principal cause of Peter s fall was his 
confidence in himself, and the good opinion 
he had of his own strength. What will pre- 
serve us will be our consciousness of our ex- 
treme weakness, which will produce in us fear 
and mistrust of ourselves. 

j. Prayer. 

O Jesus, Saviour of men, my sole Help, and 
my only Support ! I implore thee to hold me 
fast, for without thee it is impossible for me to 
stand an instant. Make me see myself, show 
me my absolute powerlessness for all good 
without thy grace, so that I may be afraid 
of myself, that I may not rest upon myself, 
but may mistrust my own strength, and may 
be humble. I conjure thee to look upon me 
with the eyes of thy mercy, as thou didst 
look upon St. Peter, so that like him I may 
conceive a true regret for my sins, and may 
weep for them all the rest of my life. Amen. 



For the Season of Lent. 249 

4.. Aspiratory Verses. 

" Lo ! thou trustest upon this broken staff of 
a reed." (Is. xxxvi. 6.) Leaning upon thyself, 
thou dos'; lean upon a reed. 

" He that thinketh himself to stand, let him 
take heed lest he fall." (1 Cor. x. 12.) He 
* that thinketh to stand and be firm, let him 
take care lest he fall, seeing that the apostles, 
and the chief and most resolute among them, 
fell so heavily. 

" Blessed is the man that is always fearful." 
(Prov. xxviii. 14.) Blessed is the man who is 
always fearful of himself. And who would not 
be fearful considering such falls ? 

THREE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ before Pilate. 

I. The Mystery. 

Our Lord having passed the entire night in 
sufferings, the morning being come, the Jews 
led him bound and in the guise of a criminal, 
to Pilate who was the administrator of justice 
for the Romans. In presence of Pilate they 
charged him with several crimes, but espe- 
cially with two : the first, that he was a dis- 
turber of the public peace, who excited the 



250 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

people to sedition by calling himself the Son 
of God ; the second, that he refused to pay 
tribute to Caesar, arrogating- to himself the 
quality of King. Thus they pretended he 
was a criminal against religion and against 
the State, and made him guilty of high-trea- 
son alike in the divine and human order. 

The Jews made these accusations against 
him with extreme violence and furious pas- 
sion, and he replied not a single word to jus- 
tify himself, at which the judge was greatly 
astonished, and urged him to speak in his 
own defence ; but still our meek Saviour kept 
silence. a He answered him not to any word, 
so that the governor wondered exceedingly." 
(Matt, xxvii. 14.) " But Jesus still answered 
nothing, so that Pilate wondered." (Mark 
xv. 5.) Pilate questioned him about his roy- 
alty and his kingdom, and asked him if he 
were a king. Our Lord replied : " Yes, I am, 
but my kingdom is not of this world." (Jno. 
xviii. 36.) 

2. The Virtues. 

They are patience, silence, and fortitude 
under false accusations and calumnies. 

Our Lord gives us an admirable example 
of their practice on an occasion so urgent, 



For the Season of Lent, 251 

when he was accused so falsely and could so 
easily have justified himself. " He shall be 
led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be 
dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he 
shall not open his mouth." (Is. liii. 7.) Be- 
ing thus pursued and led to death, he will act 
like a gentle sheep ; and like a lamb that is 
sheared, he will not open his mouth. 

Examine what is your state in regard to 
these virtues, notice what emotions you ex- 
perience when you are accused, when some 
bad report is made of you, when your honor 
is attacked ; and profit by what our Lord en- 
dures for love of you, and from the example 
he gives you. 

Endeavor to penetrate the meaning, the 
sublimity, and the fulfillment of these words 
of our Lord: " My kingdom is not of this 
world." My power, my glory, my riches, are 
not on earth. My subjects are inhabitants of 
a world other than this wherein they do not 
form their plans nor found their hopes of Hap- 
piness. Speaking of them to his Father, our 
Lord says twice : " They are not of the 
world." (Jno. xvii. 14.) And speaking to 
them in the persons of his apostles who re- 
present them all, he says: "You are not of 
the world." (Jno. xv. 19.) You are not in- 



252 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

habitants of this world nor people of this 
earth, but of Heaven. 

Be, then, of that kingdom, and consequently 
consider yourself in this world as a pilgrim so 
as not to fix your affections upon it. And in 
your poverty and all your privations, console 
yourself with the thought that you are only a 
stranger here. 



i t> v 



3. Prayer. 

O my Lord ! grant me the grace not to be 
a citizen of this world, as thou dost under- 
stand it ; and as a sign, not to excuse nor 
defend myself when I shall be blamed or 
accused either justly or wrongfully ; that I 
may imitate thee, O my divine Exemplar, who 
being so falsely and dangerously accused be- 
fore Pilate, preferred to be silent rather than 
justify thyself; and that I may suffer this 
humiliation courageously for love of thee. 
Amen. 

4.. Aspiratory Verses. 

u In silence and in hope shall your strength 
be." (Is. xxx. 15.) Your strength when you 
are accused and calumniated, shall be in keep- 
ing silence and hoping in God. 



For the Season of Lent. 



"DP 



V s Thy kingdom come." (Matt. vi. 10.) May 
thy kingdom, the kingdom of thy grace and 
glory, come to us. 

FOUR O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ before Herod. 

I. The Mystery. 

Pilate having learned that our Lord was a; 
Galilean, sent him to Herod, the tetrarch of 
Galilee (who had come to Jerusalem, as well 
as the other Jews, for the feast), as being his 
legitimate subject. 

This prince, who was very wicked, and guilty 
of the death of St. John the Baptist, and cor- 
rupted by infamous pleasures, was glad to see 
our Lord whom he had long desired to meet, 
hoping he would work some miracle in his 
presence. But so far from being willing to 
satisfy this vicious and curious man and thus 
gain some consideration from him, our Lord 
would not even answer a single word to the 
many questions Herod asked him. " He an- 
swered him nothing." (Luke xxiii. 9.) Neither 
would he utter a syllable in denial of the 
crimes the Jews with stubborn hatred and 
rage, kept on urging against him. So Herod, 

losing his esteem for him, joined with the cour- 

22 



254 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

tiers in contemning him, and as a mark of 
scorn, and a sign that he took him for a fool 
and an idiot who had not sense enough to 
speak, had a beautiful white robe put on him 
as if he were a person of rank, and then 
mocked him. After this he sent him back to 
Pilate. " He mocked him, putting on him a 
white garment, and sent him back to Pilate." 
(lb. xxiii. II.) 

2. The Virtue. 

It is to suffer meekly after our Lord's exam- 
ple, contempt that may be shown you for 
your mind, your judgment, your knowledge 
and your talents, remembering that our Lord, 
the uncreated and incarnate Word in whom 
are contained, as St. Paul says (Col. ii. 3), all 
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, was 
treated as an idiot and a fool. 

It is also not to desire, nor seek, nor procure 
in any way, the reputation of being a person 
•of intelligence, possessed of good judgment, 
wise, learned, skillful, and industrious, but to 
renounce all such desires of reputation and 
esteem ; and to believe that without contra- 
diction he has the best spirit who has the 
spirit of God, which consists in humility, sim- 
plicity, innocence, holiness, and elevation 



For 'the Season of Lent. 255 

above the things of earth, recalling how our 
Lord said to his Father : " I praise and bless 
thee because thou hast hidden thy mysteries 
and secrets from the prudent and wise of the 
world, and hast discovered then\ to the little 
and humble." 

j. Prayer. 

O Word of the Father and Eternal Wisdom, 
who keeping silence before Herod wast taken 
by him for a fool ! grant me the grace to 
understand in what a good mind and judg- 
ment truly consist, to contemn the false wis- 
dom of the world, and to highly esteem and 
embrace with all my heart thy wise folly, and 
clothe myself with its precious garments which 
are humility, simplicity, and innocence. Amen. 

/f.. Aspiratory Verses. 

" The simplicity of the just man is laughed 
to scorn. The lamp despised in the thoughts 
of the rich, is ready for the time appointed." 
(Job. xii. 4, 5.) 

The simplicity of the just is derided, it 
passes for an extinguished lamp in the opin- 
ions of rich worldlings ; but it will not be 
always thus, it will give light at its appointed 
time. 



256 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

44 1 am become a laughing-stock all day; 
all scoff at me." (Jer. xx. 7.) I have served 
as a subject for ridicule all the day long ; they 
all have mocked me. 

FIVE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ again before Pilate, and Esteemed less 
than bar abb as. 

i. The Mystci-y. 

Pilate seeing our Lord brought back to him, 
told the Jews that they might know very well 
he was innocent since neither he himself, nor 
Herod, had found him guilty of any crime de- 
serving death ; and as he must, according to 
custom, release a prisoner for the feast of the 
Passover, he would give them their king, 
would set him at liberty. The Jews imme- 
diately cried out that they did not want him, 
and demanded Barabbas, a famous criminal, 
who in a riot had committed murder. After 
a great deal of contesting on both sides, Pilate 
desiring to deliver our Lord, and the Jews re- 
fusing to receive him, Pilate finally granted 
them Barabbas. 

2. The Virtue. 

It is to conduct yourself as a true disciple 
of Jesus Christ when in questions of preference 



For the Season of Lent. 257 

and precedence, others are placed before you ; 
when more account is made of your equals 
and even of your inferiors than of you, and 
offices and charges are conferred upon them 
which you w r ould be much more capable of 
filling ; when they are put forward and you 
are kept back ; when they are talked of, and 
not a word is said about you ; when all they 
do is approved and praised, and some fault is 
found with all you do. 

In these trials of your virtue and perfection, 
think of the Incarnate Wisdom, the Sanctity 
of our Lord, and how with horrible contempt, 
with extreme injustice and fearful blindness, 
Barabbas, an infamous robber and notorious 
murderer, was preferred to him. 

3. Prayer. 

O my sovereign Lord, who didst teach that 
if we would be exalted, we must humble our- 
selves, and that to be great v/e must become 
the least of all ! (Matt, xxiii. 12 ; Luke xxii. 
26.) I beg thee by the merit of thy abase- 
ment below Barabbas, that, when in any man- 
ner I am less preferred than others, I may 
conduct myself with the patience, silence, and 
humility, necessary to make me thy imitator 
and thy disciple. Amen. 



25S Practice of Union with Our Lord 

4.. Aspiratory Verses. 

"To whom have you likened God?" (Is. 
xl. 18.) "To whom have you likened me, or 
made me equal, saith the Holy One ?" (lb. 
xl. 25.) "To whom have you likened me, 
and made me equal, and compared me, and 
made me like ?" (lb. xlvi. 5.) To whom have 
you likened God ? Is there anything that is 
not infinitely below him? To. whom have 
you compared me and made me equal, saith 
the Holy One, the Infinite Sanctity ? you 
have made me equal to Barabbas, you have 
even esteemed me less than him. 

" Death shall be chosen rather than life by 
all that shall remain of the wicked kindred in 
all places." (Jer. viii. 3.) All those that shall 
remain of that most wicked race, shall choose 
death rather than life, a homicide rather tha.n 
the Saviour. 

SIX O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Taken and Scourged. 

I. The Mystery. 

Pilate, seeing that the Jews were eager for 
the death of our Lord, to satisfy them and in 
some degree appease their fury, condemned 
him to the scourge. 



For the Season of Lenti 259 

This punishment caused our Lord extreme 
suffering- : first ; by reason of his very delicate 
and sensitive constitution ; secondly ; on ac- 
count of the cruelty of the instruments used, 
which were, it is said, of three kinds — cords 
armed at the ends with little bones shaped 
like stars, cords made of ox hides, and rods 
covered with thorns; thirdly; from the pro- 
digious number of blows he received, which, 
it is believed, amounted to five thousand. 

Our Lord endured this horrible and long 
torture without complaining, without mur- 
muring, and without manifesting the least 
sign of irritation ; but, on the contrary, with 
meekness, tranquility, and invincible patience, 
thinking meanwhile of you, and offering to 
God his Father those streams of blood that 
were drawn from his torn body, for the pardon 
of your sins. 

2. The Virtue. 

It is mortification of the flesh, which con- 
sists in performing corporal penances with 
courage accompanied by discretion ; in not 
dreading so much bodily pains and discom- 
forts, and not taking such care to avoid them ; 
in not being so eager and active when we do 
suffer them, to get rid of them, but in bearing 



260 Practice of Union ivitk Our Lord 

them with a patient and calm spirit, in imita- 
tion of our Lord, and for the sake of enduring 
something for his love,- to offer him in some 
degree suffering for suffering, and to expiate 
the disorders of our senses and the sins com- 
mitted by our flesh. 

Behold how rigorously our Lord treated his 
flesh which was most pure, most innocent and 
holy, and • learn how you should act toward 
yours which is full of corruption, and has 
caused you to commit so many faults. You 
should regard it as the enemy of your salva- 
tion, as a domestic thief, as a furnace of wick- 
edness, a principle of irregularity, a source of 
corruption, a vestment of ignorance, and a dark 
veil that hinders you from perceiving and tast- 
ing the things of God, and you should govern 
it as the slave of the dwelling, which it is, and 
should train it to its duty. 

J. Prayer. 

O my dear Saviour, who wast willing that 
thy most sacred body and thy virginal flesh 
should be torn with whips for my salvation ! 
I beg thee to apply to my flesh the merit of 
.that precious blood thou didst shed to ex- 
piate the disorders of my senses, and to was: 
out all the sins of which they ever have been 



For the Season of Lent. 261 

the instruments. I implore thee to purify my 
senses, to sanctify my body, and to grant that 
it may no longer be an obstacle, but rather a 
means and an aid to my salvation and perfec- 
tion. Amen. 

^. Aspiratory Verses. 

it They that are Christ's have crucified their 
flesh with the vices and concupiscences." (Gal. 
v. 24.) Those that belong to Jesus Christ, and 
are his true disciples, have crucified their flesh 
with its vices and concupiscences. 

" Always bearing about in our body the 
mortification of Jesus, that the life also of 
Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies." 
(il Cor. iv. 10.) Let us practice and bear 
about continually the mortification of Jesus 
in our bodies, so that they may reflect his 
life. 

SEVEN O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Crowned with Thorns and Outraged in 
Several Other Ways. 

I. The' Mystery. 

Pilate understanding that the enraged Jews 
were not satisfied with the cruel punishment 
he had just condemned our Lord to suffer, 
were not satiated with the quantity of blood 



262 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

the scourges had drawn from him, but desired 
his last drop, to appease still more their diabol- 
ical animosity, abandoned him to the soldiers 
who, calling all their comrades at the time 
on duty, crowded around him like so many 
wolves about an innocent lamb, and began 
to laugh at and mock him whom the angels 
adore and salute as the King of kings and the 
Creator of the universe. Each tried to find 
words more insulting to address him, acts 
more outrageous to inflict on him. 

They first despoiled him of his garment, 
and this not without tearing off the skin in 
several places, because the blood he had just 
shed in such abundance had dried the gar- 
ment to the skin ; then they threw over his 
shoulders a miserable old cloak of faded pur- 
ple, and placed on his head a crown woven 
of very sharp thorns, pressing it down so that 
the points pierced his brows, causing him in- 
expressible suffering ; and for a sceptre they 
put a reed in his right hand, thus making him 
a comedy king, to signify that he was a fan- 
tastic and ridiculous sovereign, and that his 
royalty was like thorns and reeds, satirical, 
void, and useless. 

"And bowing the knee before him, they 
mocked him, saying : ' Hail, king of the 



For the Season of Lent. 263 

Jews.' And spitting upon him, they took 
the reed, and struck his head." (Matt, xxvii. 
29, 30.) Having thus arrayed him, they knelt 
before him as though in adulation ; then burst- 
ing into shouts of laughter, exclaimed : " All 
hail, King of the Jews!" at the same time 
spitting in his face, and striking him on the 
head with the reed, each blow renewing and 
increasing the torture of his crown. 

2. The Virtue. 

Our Lord manifested in his endurance of all 
these sufferings and insults, an invincible pa- 
tience, made more resplendent by a singular 
meekness and a wondrous submission in per- 
mitting them to do with him" whatever they 
would, never complaining, murmuring, or ex- 
pressing any emotion. They pressed the thorns 
into his brows, and he said not a word ; they 
presented him a reed for a sceptre to mock 
him, and he did not refuse it, did not draw 
back his hand indignantly, as our corrupt 
natures would have done ; but he took it in 
his blessed hand, and grasped it with rever- 
ence and love, as the cherished instrument of 
his opprobrium. Oh ! what a model of pa- 
tience, and how admirably does such an ex- 
ample instruct us in that virtue ! 



264 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

Patience is what is most necessary in suf- 
ferings and adversities ; it is a virtue of which 
we have extreme need by reason of the mise- 
ries with which this life is filled ; it consists in 
not permitting the understanding to conceive 
any thought, the will to produce any emotion, 
the tongue to utter any word, nor the whole 
person that suffers, to manifest any sign of 
impetuosity, impatience, indignation, or vexa- 
tion, as though unwilling to suffer, but to 
receive and bear the suffering peacefully and 
with a quiet spirit. 

Thus Tertullian describing patience and 
painting it in his own colors, says : " It has a 
countenance mild and tranquil, a brow serene 
and unfurrowed by any wrinkle made by sad- 
ness or 'anger, lips sealed with the seal of a 
wise and honorable silence, and a com- 
plexion such as we see in persons who are 
innocent and confiding." (Tert. 1. de Patient. 
<c. 15.) 

You should undertake with great care the 
acquisition of this virtue, without which you 
cannot acquire the others, inasmuch as they 
cannot be gained without trouble ; whence 
St. Gregory said that a man shows himself as 
much less virtuous as he is less patient. 



For the Season of Lent. 265 

j. Prayer. 

O King of glory, who for love of me didst 
suffer so patiently so many indignities and so 
much infamy ! give me the spirit of thy pa- 
tience to bear contempt and opprobrium. 
Sanctify by the merit of thy crown of thorns 
that so terribly afflicted thy brows, all my 
thorns and my afflictions, and purify my mind 
and my spirit from all bad thoughts ; and as 
I am of myself only a feeble reed, light and 
inconstant, take me in thy holy and powerful 
hand to strengthen me, to establish and de- 
fend me. Amen. 

4.. Aspiratory Verses. 

" Let us examine him by outrages and tor- 
tures, that we may know his meekness and 
try his patience." (Wis. ii. 19.) Let us sound 
him with outrages and torments to see how 
deep is his equanimity and patience. 

" I do not resist ; I have not gone back. I 
have given my body to the strikers, and my 
cheeks to them that plucked them ; I have 
not turned away my face from them that re- 
buked me, and spit upon me." (Is. 1. 5, 6.) 
I have given my body to be beaten and torn 
with scourges, and my cheeks to those that 

23 



265 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

buffeted them and plucked out my beard ; I 
have not turned away my face when they 
wished to insult it and cover it with spittle ; 
I have not refused to suffer all these outrages, 
I have not drawn back to avoid them. 

" For thy sake I have borne reproach ; shame 
hath covered my face." fPs. lxviii. 8.) I have 
received insults, I have borne opprobrium, and 
my face has been covered with confusion for 
my love for thee. Consider what thou art 
willing to do for me. 

EIGHT O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Presented to the People. 

/. The Mystery. 

Pilate having the secret desire to deliver 
our Lord because he believed him innocent, 
and because his w r ife had intimidated him by 
a relation of certain visions she had had in the 
night, and wishing to prevail upon the Jews 
to let him go, gave them for that purpose b. 
spectacle capable of moving to compassion 
the most cruel hearts, of softening tigers. It 
was this : 

He took our Lord whose body was naked, 
torn, and covered with blood, whose face was 
disfigured, livid, swollen from the blows, soiled 



For the Season of Lent. 267 

with spittle, scratched by the thorns, whose 
eyes were bruised and half dimmed, whose 
hair and beard w,ere plucked out, and with his 
wrists tied, the crown of thorns on his head, 
the reed in his hand, and the purple cloak of 
scorn on his shoulders, he led him to the steps 
of his palace, and showed him in this condition 
to the people, saying : Ecce homo ! — Behold 
the man ! 

As if meaning to say : Behold this man 
against whom you are so exasperated, and of 
whom you are afraid ; see in what a state he 
is. You accuse him of calling himself the Son 
of God, and of having designed to be your 
king. Be assured that far from bearing any 
mark of divinity, he must be considered the 
vilest and most miserable of all men ; and as 
to his being a king, look what a crown, what 
a sceptre, and what purple he wears ! He 
need not excite your fear, but rather your 
pity. 

2. The Spirit of the Mystery . 

It is to make a good use of Jesus Christ, 
and to remember these remarkable words of 
the holy old man Simeon, when he held him 
in his arms : " Behold this child is set for 
the fall, and for the resurrection of many." 



268 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

(Luke ii. 34.) Behold this child will be to 
many the occasion of their fall and damna- 
tion, and to many others the cause of their 
salvation ; and this will be according to the 
use they make of him. 

As Pilate presenting our Lord to the Jews 
said to them with his own meaning: "Be- 
hold the man! so persuade yourself that God 
the Father presents him to each one of us, 
saying with his meaning : Ecce homo ! Be- 
hold the man ! Look at this man who is not 
only a man, but also the true God, my only 
Son by nature, born of my substance, and 
whom I love infinitely. 

BeJiold the man ! Behold my well-beloved 
Son ! I have been willing that he should be- 
come man for thee, that he should endure all 
sorts of evils for thy salvation. See in him 
the love I bear thee, my esteem for thy soul, 
the malice of sin, my hatred of it, and the 
chatisement I inflict upon it, and then judge 
from this how thou shouldst love me, and the 
service thou shouldst render me ; how thou 
shouldst hate sin, how avoid it ; and if thou 
committest it what reason thou hast to fear 
my justice. 

Behold the man ! This Man-God whom I 
give thee to be thy Saviour, thy Redeemer, 



For the Season of Lent. 269 

thy Mediator, thy Protector, thy Exemplar, 
thy wisdom, thy strength, thy hope, and thy all. 
You ought also to say to yourself: My 
soul, behold the man ! the Man-God in whom 
thou must believe, hope, and trust, whom thou 
must honor, adore, and love above all things. 

j. Prayer. 

O new Adam and Chief of all the Elect! 
who wast pleased to appear so deformed and 
hideous that none could recognize thee, and 
they took thee for a leper, or a monster rather 
than a man, in order to make me see to what 
a state I have by my sins reduced the image 
of God engraven within me, and how hide- 
ously I have disfigured it, and how thou, the 
first, the essential and personal Image of God, 
didst come here below to repair it and restore 
it to its beauty. Grant that I may efface the 
image of Adam that is within me, whose fea- 
tures are sins, vices, and imperfections, to 
replace it by, and to bear always, thy image, 
which is the representation of charity, pa- 
tience, gentleness, and all virtues. Amen. 

</. Aspiratory Verses. 

"We have seen him, and there was no 
sightliness ; despised and the most abject of 



270 Practice of Union with Oar Lord 

men, a man of sorrows ; and we thought him 
as it were a leper." (Is. liii. 2, 3, 4.) We saw 
him, and he appeared to us so changed and 
so mutilated that we could not recognize him ; 
an object of extreme scorn, the lowest of men, 
a man subject to every affliction ; and we took 
him for a leper. 

"Look on the face of thy Christ." (Ps. 
lxxxiii. 10.) God the Father bids us : Look 
on the face of Christ thy Saviour, to make of 
it, as thou ought, the means of grace and 
salvation. 

And let us address the same words to God 
the Father in all our needs : Eternal Father, 
look upon the face of thy Son Jesus Christ, to 
pardon our sins, to give us strength to con- 
quer our passions, to practice virtues, and 
following in his footsteps to reach the per- 
fection to which thou dost call us, and to aid 
us in all our necessities. Amen. 

NINE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Condemned to the Death of the Cross. 
i. The Mysteiy. 

Pilate having tried to save our Lord and to 
appease the hatred the Jews had conceived 
against 'him, they, instead of being melted to 



For the Season of Lent. 271 

some sentiments of humanity, cried out : 
44 Crucifigatnr" — let him be crucified ! But 
what evil has he done that he should be cru- 
cified, asked Pilate. They, unwilling to listen 
to any reason, only redoubled their cries : Let 
him be crucified. But I find nothing in. him 
worthy of death, continued the governor. Do 
you wish me to crucify an innocent person ? 
To this, they only cried the more. " They 
were instant with loud voices requiring that 
he might be crucified ; and their voices pre- 
vailed." (Luke xxiii. 23.) 

Then Pilate convinced that he could make 
no impression on their enraged spirits, had 
water brought and washed his hands before 
them, saying : " I am innocent of the blood 
of this just man. Look you to it. And the 
whole people answering, said : His blood be 
upon us and upon our children." All the 
people replied contemptuously : Yes, yes, w T e 
care nothing about that ; we are content that 
the chastisement of his blood fall on us and 
on our children ; but we are not afraid of it, 
for he is only a rogue and a scoundrel. 

Pilate, however, having not yet quite lost 
all hope, made a last attempt, showing them 
our Lord in the state we have described, a 
sight that might have melted even hearts of 



272 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

stone, saying : " Beheld the man /" But their 
furious voices only shouted louder than ever : 
" Tolle, tolle, cmcifige eum /" Away with him, 
crucify him ! Take this man away from before 
our eyes, we no longer want to see him except 
on a gibbet ; let him "die, the wretch, the 
rebel, the cheat, the blasphemer, the profaner ! 
Crucify him, crucify him ! Then the iniquitous 
judge, betraying the cause of the innocent, 
outraging justice, yielding as a coward to 
human respect, abandoned our Lord to the 
rage of the Jews to be crucified. 

2, The Spirit of the Mystery. 

It is to learn -how far in sin souls abandoned 
by God, go — even tc refusing, to scorning, to 
hating, and holding in horror and execration, 
their Saviour, their Redeemer, the remedy ios 
all their ills and the source of all their bles- 
sings. What blindness ! What perversity ! 

It is to see the untold injury that human 
respect does to the salvation of a soul, since 
it caused Pilate to condemn to death innocence 
itself. And even now there are those who 
daily condemn Jesus Christ to death and com- 
mit grievous sins through cowardly human 



For the Season of Lent. 273 

respect, in order not to displease, not to offend, 
and for other temporal considerations that 
ought to be generously trampled under foot. 

j. Prayer. 

O sweet Jesus ! with still more affection, 
more zeal, and more respect, I wish to possess 
thee, I acknowledge thee as the only Son of 
God, as my Lord and my Saviour ; I believe 
in thee, I hope in thee, and I intend to love 
thee still more than the Jews held thee in 
hatred and contempt, who did so to the de- 
gree of not wanting thee and of even looking 
upon thee with horror. I ask thee, I suppli- 
cate thee that thy blood may not fall upon 
me as upon the Jews, to condemn me, but to 
absolve me ; not to stain me, but to wash me ; 
not to lose me, but to save me. Amen. 

4.. Aspiratory Verse. 

You should make the celebrated confession 
of St. Peter: "Thou art Christ, the Son of 
the living God." (Matt. xvi. 16.) 

You should repeat these words in opposition 
to the perverse sentiments of the Jews, with 
faith, reverence, devotion, hope, and love. 



274 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

TEN O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ bearing his Cross, goes to Calvary. 

i. The Mystery. 

In execution of the sentence of death, our 
Lord was taken by the. soldiers, his mantle of 
ridicule was torn off causing him new suffer- 
ing, and he was clothed in his own garments ; 
then loaded with the cross to which he was 
to be nailed, he was led outside the city to 
the place of his sacrifice which was the hill of 
Calvary. And for fear lest, being worn out 
and weakened by the tortures he had under- 
gone and the loss of so much blood, and from 
having neither eaten, drunk, nor slept since 
the preceding day, he might fail under the 
weight of his heavy burden and lose the rest 
of his strength, and perhaps die, they forced a 
man named Simon, a native of the city of 
Cyrene, to help him carry it ; but this was not 
through any pity they felt for him, but to re- 
serve him for the last torture. 

He was followed on this sad journey by a 
vast multitude of persons, and among others 
by several devout women, who through com- 
passion for his sufferings lamented bitterly, 
shedding floods of tears. Our Lord turning 



For the Season of Lent. 275 

toward them, said to them: "Daughters ot 
Jerusalem, weep not over me, but weep for 
yourselves and for your children ; for if in the 
green wood they do these things, what shall 
be done in the dry ?" (Luke xxiii. 28.) Daugh- 
ters of Jerusalem, weep not so much for me as 
for yourselves and your children ; for if they 
treat the wood that is alive so rudely, what 
will they do to the dead wood ? If the fire ,so 
greedily seizes the green wood, how will it 
take hold of the dry ? 

2. The Spirit of the Mystery. 

You should regard attentively our Lord go- 
ing from Pilate's palace to Calvary, which was 
outside the city, bearing on his shoulders the 
wood of his cross, and in that cross all your 
sins and all the punishment they deserve, 
with which he charged himself in order to 
relieve you, although they were so heavy that 
they weighed him down, and were to cause 
his death. 

What compassion you should have for him 
seeing him walking through the streets, toil- 
ing and moaning beneath the insupportable 
burden of your sins, and thus going to death ! 
What gratitude ought you to render him for 
such a benefit, what love for such great love ! 



276 Practice of Union zvitli Onr Lord 

But will you not aid him in his travail, v ill 
you not lighten the weight of his cross ? The 
way is, since your sins make it heavy, to have 
a lively sorrow for them, and to change your 
life. 

j. Prayer. 

O innocent Isaac, dear and amiable Saviour, 
who loaded with the wood of thy sacrifice, 
didst go to death like a gentle lamb ! listen, 
I beseech thee, to my humble prayer to be 
allowed to bear after thee, like Simon the 
Cyrenean, the figure of thy elect, the cross 
thou hast destined for me ; and to bear it 
with thee in thy patience, thy strength, thy 
humility, thy gentleness, thy love, and in all 
thy virtues. Amen. 

^. Aspiratory Verses. 

"Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see 
King Solomon in the diadem wherewith his 
mother crowned him." (Cant. iii. 11.) 

Daughters of Sion, pious souls, go forth from 
yourselves, from the sentiments of the flesh, 
and see with the eyes of the spirit the peace- 
ful king Solomon crowned with the crown of 
thorns, which his cruel mother, the Syna- 



For the Season of Lent. 277 

gogue, and still more your sins, placed on his 
head, see him going to death for you ; and 
accompany him with faith, respect, love, com- 
passion, regret for your sins, and a determined 
resolution to lead a better life. Otherwise, ex- 
pect the fulfillment of these words which you 
ought to meditate and frequently repeat : 
"If in the green wood they do these things, 
what shall be done in the dry ? " (Luke xxiii. 

3I-) 

If such extreme severity is exercised toward 
the green wood which is worthy of being pre- 
served, what will be done with the dry wood, 
which is good for nothing but to burn ? If 
God punishes so fearfully his only and most 
innocent Son for the sins of his rebellious 
slave, how will he punish the slave himself 
if he does not reform ? 

ELEVEN O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ put to Death between two Thieves. 

1. The Mystery. 

Two criminals were brought out of the city 
with our Lord to be crucified with him ; one 
was crucified on his right hand, and the other 
on his left. (Luke xxiii. 32, 33.) 



24 



278 Practice of Union zvitk Our Lord 

2. The Spirit of the Mystery. 

It is to admire, adore, and fear the abysses 
of God's judgments, and to take great care to 
live well. 

Two robbers, one as guilty as the other, 
were condemned to the same kind of death, 
on the same day and in the same place. One 
was taken, and the other left ! (Matt. xxiv. 
40.) One was predestined, the other rejected ; 
one saved, the other lost ; one went from his 
cross to paradise, the other descended from 
his to hell. 

These two thieves, figures of the predesti- 
nate and the reprobate, were both on the 
cross and suffered extreme torments ; but the 
bad one suffered even more than the good, 
because besides the tortures of the body, he 
had also to endure those of the soul, impa- 
tience, spite, fury, rage, hatred, the desire of 
vengeance, and his other wicked sentiments ; 
whilst, if the good one was tormented in body, 
his soul bore his torments patiently, he en- 
dured them as a satisfaction for his sins which 
he deeply regretted, and he was cheered by 
the hope of his salvation. 

The history of these two men teaches us 
that all, the good and the bad, are afflicted in 



For the Season of Lent, 279 

this life, the bad even more than the good ; 
and also, that all we have to do is to accept 
our afflictions in a good spirit, because an af- 
fliction well received, a cross well carried, is, 
as it was to the good thief, a token of predes- 
tination and a cause of a thousand blessings ; 
on the contrary, badly received and borne, as 
in the case of the bad thief, it is a sign of re- 
probation, and a source of an infinity of evils. 

j. Prayer. 

O God whose judgments are abysses ! show 
me grace and mercy, look upon me favorably 
as thou didst look upon the good thief, so 
that like him I may have strength to be en- 
tirely converted, to bear my sufferings and 
hang upon my cross as he did, and also like 
him to ascend from the cross to paradise. 
Amen. 

(4.. Aspiratory Verse. 
" Lord, remember me when thou shalt come 
- 

into thy kingdom." (Luke xxiii. 42.) Ah ! 
Lord, remember me when thou shalt be in 
thy kingdom ; and as thou art already there, 
remember me now to forgive my sins and 
show me mercy. 



280 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

MIDDAY. 

Jesus Christ on the Cross. 

/. The Mystery, 

Our Lord was nailed to the cross with inex- 
plicable torture, and then elevated and ex- 
posed with extreme infamy to the gaze of a 
great multitude of spectators, who continuing 
their hatred and cruelty, and delighted to see 
him where they had so much desired him to 
be, vomited forth against him blasphemies 
and outrageous words, and shaking their 
heads in mockery and disdain, exclaimed : 
Go to, wicked wretch ! who boasted to be 
able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild 
it in three days, now use your power for your- 
self, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, 
prove it by coming down from the cross. He 
saved others, and he knows not how to save 
himself! If he is, as he has pretended, the 
king of Israel whom we await, let him come 
down from his cross and we w r ill believe in 
him and receive him. He has put his trust in 
God, let God now deliver him if he owns him 
for his Son. " They blasphemed him, wagging 
their heads and saying : Vah ! thou that de- 
stroyest the temple of God, and in three days 



For the Season of Lent. 281 

dost rebuild it, save thy own r self ; if thou be 
the Son of God, come down from the cross. 
He saved others, himself he cannot save. If 
he be the king of Israel, let him now come 
down from the cross and we will believe in 
him. He trusted in God ; let him now deliver 
him if he will have him ; for he said, I am the 
Son of God. (Matt, xxvii. 39, 40, 42, 43.) 

While our Lord was plunged and submerged 
in that most bitter sea of agonies, to sustain 
him in some degree they offered him a glass 
of myrrh mingled with gall ; but he would 
only taste it to experience its bitterness ; and 
would not drink it to mitigate his sufferings, 
as other victims of the cross w T ere accustomed 
to do, to whom this mixture w 7 as given as a 
narcotic to stupefy and deaden their senses, 
so that they would not feel their tortures so 
acutely. 

2. The Spirit of the Mysteiy. 

It is to regard with close application of 
spirit our Lord crucified ; to look at him with 
faith, believing that he is your Creator and 
your Sovereign Lord ; with extreme regret 
for your sins that have brought him to this 
state and have cost him so much suffering 
after he has bestowed on you so many bles- 



282 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

sings ; with great hope of obtaining pardon, 
since he suffers to give it to you and pours out 
his blood to wash you ; with ardent love, con- 
sidering what he does and endures for you, 
what he gives you, and how lovingly he gives ; 
and finally with great fear of being severely 
punished if you do not correspond to such 
excessive love, and if you do not make a 
good use of so precious a means of salvation. 

You must unite yourself to our Lord cruci- 
fied, and apply yourself above all to the mys- 
tery of his cross, because it is the mystery 
of the predestination, the justification, sancti- 
fication, and salvation of men — in fact, the 
means whereby our Lord has predestined, 
justified, sanctified, and saved them. It was 
there, on the cross, that he purchased them, 
that he paid their ransom and discharged 
their debts ; it was there that he conquered 
sin, the devil, death, and all their enemies ; 
there he closed the gates of hell and opened 
the doors of paradise ; and there he merited 
for them grace, glory, and all the blessings 
they will ever enjoy. 

Finally, you should apply yourself to the 
mystery of the cross with the resolution of 
imitating the humility, patience, obedience, 
charity, and other virtues our Lord there ex- 



For the Season of Lent. 283 

erased, and there taught us ; remembering 
that he exercised and taught them for the 
express purpose that you should imitate 
them, and that you cannot in any other way 
. unite yourself to him crucified and receive the 
fruits of his cross. 

j. Prayer. 

O Jesus, my Saviour and my Redeemer ! 
grant me this grace which I beg of thee with 
my whole heart ; that, as all the members of 
thy body were fastened to the cross, and as I 
have the honor, unworthy though I am, to be 
one of the members of thy mystical body, it 
may please thee to attach me to thy cross, to 
render me a recipient of its merits, and to give 
me its true spirit to enable me to live the rest 
of my days as a man crucified with thee, prac- 
ticing the humility, patience, gentleness, obe- 
dience, charity, forgiveness of injuries, poverty 
of spirit as well as of body, and all the other 
virtues thou didst there exemplify. Amen. 

4.. Aspiratory Verses. 

" They shall look upon me whom they have 
pierced." (Zach. xii. 10.) Those who have 
crucified me shall behold me on the cross 
where they have placed me, and shall stay 



284 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

their gaze to consider what I suffer, for whom, 
and with what love. 

"With Christ I am nailed to the cross." 
(Gal. ii. 19.) I am nailed to the cross with 
Jesus Christ as one of his members that 
shares the affliction of his head. 

" The world is crucified to me, and I to the 
world." (Gal. vi. 14.) We are dead, the one 
to the other. 

ONE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Speaking on the Cross. 

7. The Mystery. 

Our Lord on the cross spoke seven words 
which w T ere heard ; doubtless he spoke others 
which were not heard ; it is believed that he 
recited the twenty-first Psalm which clearly 
refers to his passion. 

I. 

The first word our Lord spoke on the cross 
is redolent of most admirable charity, because 
it had for its object those who had crucified 
him. He asked his Father to pardon them, 
saying : " Father, forgive them, for they know 
not zv hat they do." (Luke xxiii. 34.) 

He included in this prayer not only those 
of the Jewish and Roman people w r ho had 



For the Season of Lent. 285 

crucified him, but us, and all men, because 
we have all fastened him to the cross with 
the nails of our sins. 

Let us learn from such an example love of 
our enemies and the forgiveness of injuries. 

O my Saviour, say once more to thy Father, 
there in highest Heaven, say now and always 
for me and for all men : Father, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do. 

II. 

The second word was to promise paradise 
to the good thief, telling him : " Amen, I say 
to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in parei- 
dise" (Luke xxiii. 43.) I tell thee and I as- 
sure thee that to-day thou shalt be with me 
in paradise. 

Who would not hope in our Lord after such 
a pardon and such a grace ? Thus the Church 
sings : 

" Qui Mariam absolvisti^ 
Et latronem exaudisti, 
Mild quoque spent dedisti. ' ' 

"Thou didst Mary's guilt forgive, 
Didst the dying thief receive ; 
Hence doth hope within me live." 

III. 

The third word was to give to his most 
blessed and most afflicted Mother, Saint John 



286 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

for her son, saying : " Woman, behold thy son" 
(Jno. xix. 26.) 

Thou art losing the Son thou broughtest 
forth. I give thee another, my most cherished 
disciple, to assist thee and take care of thee. 

And to St. John he said: "Behold thy 
Mother!' (Jno. xix. 27.) My Mother shall 
henceforth be thine. 

O my Saviour, since thou art kind enough 
to allow me to apply these words to myself, 
I pray thee that, as I do not doubt thy holy 
Mother exercises toward me all the care and 
charity of a good and tender mother, *so I may 
render her all the duties of honor, obedience, 
and love a good son owes his mother. 

IV. 

The fourth word was to cry out to his Fa- 
ther in the extremity of his agony: "My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " 
(Mark xv. 34.) 

My God, my God, why hast thou thus aban- 
doned me ? Why dost thou allow thy Son to 
suffer so much ? 

Who would not feel compassion for our 
Lord, hearing him utter this mournful cry, 
and at the same time experience deep sorrow 



For the Season of Lent. 287 

for sin, since it has reduced the Son of God to 
this extremity ? 

V. 

The fifth word was : " Sitio, I thirst." (Jno. 
xix. 28.) Yes, I thirst, but rather to suffer 
more for the love of men than to drink some 
liquid to refresh my body. 

See the ardor of our Lord's love for you ! 
Had he not suffering enough without desiring 
more to testify his love for you ? Correspond, 
then, to that burning love, and suffer some- 
thing for him. 

VI. 

The sixth word was : " Consnmmatnm est, 
It is consummated T (Jno. xix. 30.) I under- 
toojk an affair for the glory of God and the 
salvation of men ; I have not left it in an im- 
perfect state ; behold it is finished. 

Do the same with regard to all your actions 
so that you can say with our Lord : Consnm- 
matnm est, the thing is consummated, and as 
entirely as possible. 

VII. 

The last word was to say to God his ^Fa- 
ther : " Father, into thy hands I commend my 



288 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

spirit. And saying this, he gave up the 
ghost." (Luke xxiii. 46.) 

After his example, say frequently these 
words: "Father, I commend to thee my 
spirit, and I place it in thy paternal hands 
for thee to guide it, defend it, illumine it, 
strengthen it, purify it, and at its departure 
from my body, open to it the gates cf thy 
paradise and reunite it to thee as to its first 
principle.- Amen. 

TWO O'CLOCK. 

Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross. 

7. The Mystery. 

Our Lady stood near the cross of her cru- 
cified Son. "There stood by the cross of 
Jesus, his ^Mother." (Jno. xix. 25.) There is 
no tongue that can express, nor mind capable 
of conceiving the greatness of the affliction 
and the excess of the sorrow that filled the 
soul of that most desolate of mothers at the 
foot of the cross of her Son ; because her 
affliction and sorrow flowed from two sources, 
the vastness of which can neither be understood 
nor described ; these sources were, the suffer- 
ings of her Son and the love she bore him. 
Thus her grief is beyond our thoughts and 1 



' For the Season of Lent. 289 

words ; it is that sword not of iron, nor of 
steel, but of sorrow, which the holy old man, 
Simeon had predicted would pierce her heart- 

2. The Spirit of the Mystery. 

It is to stand, not to fall, beneath the great- 
est trials and the most bitter griefs, to bear 
them with patience and fortitude after the ex- 
ample of our Lady, who, in the extremity of her 
affliction and when that sword of sorrow was 
plunged in her soul even to the hilt, was not 
conquered by her suffering .nor cast to the 
earth, but stood at the foot of the cross, 
where, as St. Anselm says : "She poured out 
her tears and was immersed in a sea of sorrow, 
but she remained constant and suffered with 
invincible patience ; she stood gracefully, mod- 
estly, and with a confusion full of strength 
and wisdom." She stood, ever resigned to 
the will of God for the death of her Son, 
whom she would herself have crucified, so the 
saints say, if it had been necessary for God's 
glory and the salvation of men, since she had 
no less obedience, and no less courage to 
sacrifice her Son, than Abraham had to im- 
molate his. 

The spirit of this mystery is, moreover, to 

recognize that we owe compensation to our 
25 



290 Practice of Union zvitJi Our Lord 

Lady for the death of her Son ; for, as our sins 
put him to death, we have not only offended 
him, but also his Mother, and are under obli- 
gation to repair the wrong we have done her, 
just as in human society reparation must be 
made to a parent for the murder of its child. 

We ought, then, in compensation, to at 
least share the sorrow of that desolate Mo- 
ther, to compassionate her, to have a trne 
repentance for our sins and the atrocious in- 
jury they have done her, to most humbly beg 
her forgiveness, to offer her a thousand thanks- 
givings for having contributed to our salvation 
by the sacrifice of her Son, and to promise that 
we will love her and her Son more than ever. 
This last is the satisfaction and reparation she 
asks of us; for her most ardent desire, the 
greatest pleasure that we can give her, is that 
we should honor and love her Son ; as it is 
also the dearest wish of the Son, the thing 
most agreeable to him, that we should honor 
:and love his Mother. 

3. Prayer, 

O holy Virgin and most afflicted Mother, 
whom I behold beneath the cross. of thy Son, 
crucified most cruelly with him ! I beg thee, 
I conjure thee to give me a share in thy sor- 



For the Season of Lent. 291 

rows, since I am their cause. Let the point 
of that swprd that pierced thy heart through 
and through, enter mine, to make it feel thy 
affliction and thy Son's torments. Holy Mo- 
ther, impress, even on the quick of my soul, 
the wounds of thy crucified Son, and give me 
to lament and weep his death with thee, and 
like thee, for the rest of my life. Amen. 

4. Aspiratory Verses. 

" Call me not Noemi (that is, beautiful), but 
call me Mara (that is, bitter), for the Al- 
mighty hath quite filled me with bitterness." 
(Ruth i. 20.) The Almighty has filled me 
with great bitterness ; and in fact the name 
of Mary signifies, among other things, a sea 
of bitterness. 

" To what shall I compare thee, to what 
shall I equal thee, O virgin Daughter of Sion ? 
for great as the sea is thy destruction.'' (Lam. 
ii. 13.) O Daughter of Sion, holy Virgin, to 
what shall I compare thee, to what affliction 
shall I liken thine ? There is none, because 
thine is vast as the sea, which is almost limit- 
less, and in which there is not a drop of sweet 
water, but all is bitter. 



292 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

THREE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Dying in the Midst of Great Prodigies. 

/. The Mystery. 

Our Lord, " crying with a loud voice, yielded 
up the ghost." (Matt, xxvii. 50.) And im- 
mediately the veil of the temple, which sepa- 
rated the two most holy places, was rent in 
twain from the top to the bottom, the earth 
trembled, the rocks were cleft, the tombs 
opened, and the sun clothed itself in mourn- 
ing, covering its face with shadows that spread 
over all the earth. The centurion who com- 
manded the. company of soldiers, and the sol- 
diers themselves, witnessing these prodigies, 
were sore afraid, and confessed that our Lord 
was indeed just, innocent, and the Son of 
God. And all the spectators returned greatly 
astonished, and striking their breasts in re- 
pentance. (Luke xxiii. 48.) 

2. The Spirit of the Mystery. 

Consider the great prodigies that came to 
pass at our Lord's death ; but persuade your- 
self that it will be a still greater prodigy if, 
beholding those rendings of the rocks, those 
openings of the tombs, those phenomena of 



For the Season of Lent. 293 

nature, all those wonders that happened to 
inanimate things for which our Lord did not 
die, you who are endowed with reason, and 
for whom he did die to deliver you from all 
kinds of evil, and to load you with all bless- 
ings, are not affected, if your heart is not 
broken, if it does not open to God, if you do 
not change your life. 

Therefore, withdrawing into yourself, strike 
your breast like the centurion, conceive re- 
gret for your offences, beg God to pardon 
them, and commence with a courageous and 
firm resolution a better life, to which our Lord 
unceasingly calls you by that loud cry he ut- 
tered at his death. 

j. Prayer. 

O my dear and all-powerful Redeemer, who 
at thy death hadst strength to tear away 
the veils and disclose the hidden things, to 
cause the motionless body of the earth to 
tremble, to break the hard rocks, and to open 
the sealed tombs ! I beg thee by the merit 
of thy death to act thus powerfully upon my 
soul, and to produce spiritually and holily all 1 
these effects in it for its salvation and perfec- 
tion. Amen. 



294 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

4. Aspiratory Verse. 

" Jcntsalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Domi- 
uum Deum tiium." (Ecclesia in offic. Parasc.) 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, O soul purchased by the 
precious blood of Jesus Christ, be converted 
to the Lord thy God, who has loved thee even 
to dying on a gibbet for thy salvation, the 
most painful and ignominious of deaths ! 

FOUR O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ Wounded in the Heart after his Death. 

7. The Mystery. 

One of the soldiers who had assisted at our 
Lord's execution, after he w T as dead, opened 
his side with a lance ; and immediately there 
flowed out the little blood that remained, and 
water. (Jno. xix. 34.) 

2. The Spirit of " the Mystery . 

Our Lord received after his death this wound 
in his side, in his heart, to show that his death 
and all his sufferings came from the heart, from 
the love he bore us, as their source ; that they 
tended to love, to make us love him, as their 
end. Therefore, since it is in the wound of 



For the Season of Lent. 295 

his heart his love dwells, that wound is the 
wound of love. 

Our Lord permitted his heart to be opened 
in order that we might enter it, might fix 
therein our dwelling, and never leaving it, 
might in it exercise all the works of the pur- 
gative, the illuminative, and the unitive life. 

St. Bernard addresses our Lord in these 
words: "They pierced thy side so that we 
might have a door to go to thee ; they made 
a wound and cleft in thy heart so -that we may 
find there a shelter from all the troubles and 
embarrassments of exterior things. Let us then 
approach and enter that heart ; we will there 
enjoy marvelous pleasures, and will there find 
our paradise on earth. Oh ! how good it is, 
what satisfaction and comfort to dwell in the 
Heart of Jesus \ (Bern, de Pass. c. 3.) 

J. Prayer. 

By thy Heart transpierced with the lance, 
and much more with the love thou bearest us, 
graciously deign, O sweet Jesus, to wound my 
heart with thy love. And since thou w r ast 
pleased that thine should be opened so that I 
might enter therein, give me grace to enter 
that sanctuary, to dwell, to work in it, to im- 



296 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

bibe its purity, charity, meekness, and all its 
holy and divine dispositions. Amen. 

^. Aspiratory Verse. 

" I shall die in my nest, and as a palm-tree, 
shall multiply all my days " (like the phoenix. 
Hebr. Tertul.) (Job. xxix. 18.) I shall die 
in my little nest, and like a palm-tree, shall 
there multiply my days and produce my fruits. 

I desire to live to God and to die to myself 
in my little nest in the wound of my Saviour's 
Heart. There I will gain palms of victory 
over my vices and the enemies of- my salva- 
tion ; there I will -burn and be reduced to 
ashes, and will renew myself, like the phoenix, 
to perform all my actions in a new and excel- 
lent manner. 

FIVE O'CLOCK. 

Jesus Christ taken down from the Cross and laid in 
the Sepulchre. 

I. The Mystery. 

Our Lord, after having remained some 
hours on the cross, was taken down by Jo- 
seph, a native of Arimathea, and one of the 
counselors of Jerusalem, who was a man of 
wealth and rank. The sacred Body was 



For the Season of Lent. 297 

placed in the arms of the afflicted Moth- 
er, who at sight of it redoubled her weeping 
and experienced an increase of sorrow ; after 
she had held it for some time, bathed it with 
her tears, and kissed it over and over again, 
it was embalmed with myrrh and aloes, and 
then laid in a sepulchre which Joseph recently 
had hewn for himself in the rock, and in which 
no corpse had as yet been placed. It was a 
grotto in a garden near Calvary. 

2. The Spirit of the Mystery. 

St. Paul teaches us what it is when he says, 
writing to the Romans : u We are buried to- 
gether, with him by baptism unto death ; that 
as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory 
of the Father, so we also may walk in new- 
ness of life." (Rom. vi. 4.) We have all 
been buried with our Lord Jesus Christ in 
baptism ; that is, as our Lord lay dead in the 
sepulchre, so we die to sin by virtue of this 
sacrament to lead afterward a new life of 
purity, innocence, and elevation above the 
things of earth, a life resembling our Lord's 
life after his glorious resurrection. Whence 
the person baptized is plunged three times in 
che water to represent the three days our 
Lord lay in the sepulchre, also to represent 



298 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

that person's death to sin and his burial to all 
the vanities of the world ; for this reason like- 
wise, the most suitable day for baptism was 
considered in the primitive Church to be Holy 
Saturday, the day our Lord spent in the tomb, 
and the white garment the priest gave the new- 
ly-baptized was a sign of the pure and innocent 
life to which their baptism obliged them. 

Let us, continuing the symbolism, consider 
that the sepulchre newly hewn in the rock, 
which our Lord requires, is a heart renewed 
according to his spirit, and firmly and con- 
stantly established in the resolution to love 
him, to prefer him to all else, and to imitate 
his virtues. But he desires to be laid there 
embalmed with the aromatic and precious 
gums of myrrh and aloes ; that is to say, we 
must make use of mortification and must sub- 
due ourselves ; then our heart will be a rich 
and magnificent mausoleum in which our dead 
Lord will repose willingly, and to which he 
will abundantly apply the merits of his death 
to purify it, sanctify it, and make it perfect 
according to God. 

3. Prayer. 

O my dear Saviour ! I ask thee with all the 
ardor and affection I am capable of, that, since 



For the Season of Lent. 299 

by my baptism I have been entombed with 
thee as a member with the head, so I may 
die entirely and perseveringly to sin, I may 
renounce the pomps of the world and all com- 
merce with the devil, according to the promise 
I made, and may live a life truly and excel- 
lently Christian, like a creature renewed in 
thee and animated with thy spirit. Amen. 

4.. Aspiratory Verse. 

" And his sepulchre shall be glorious." (Is. 
xi. 10.) His sepulchre shall be glorious by 
reason of the concourse of Christians that 
shall come to visit it from all quarters of the 
earth. 

But make still more glorious the one you 
have prepared for him in your heart ; do this 
by acts of the virtues, particularly by mortifi- 
cation of your passions, and of all your irregu- 
lar appetites. 



CHAPTER VI. . 

PRACTICE OF UNION WITH OUR LORD FROM 
EASTER TO THE FEAST OF THE BLESSED 
SACRAMENT, 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

The Resurrection of our Lord, his Ascen- 
sion, and the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon 
the faithful, are the mysteries of this season, 
and will consequently form the subject of our 
considerations. ■ 

II.— THE AFFECTIONS. 
i. Fat tit. 

The Resurrection of our Lord, which, as St. 
Paul says, carries with it as a necessary con- 
sequence our resurrection, is the foundation of 
our religion, because it establishes beyond a 
doubt the doctrine of a future life where we 
are to be happy forever. 

Without the sure hope of this future life we 
would be, says the same apostle, the most 
miserable of men — the most foolish, to deprive 
ourselves of the pleasures of the present life, 
and to take so much pains to bear our cross 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 301 

in obedience to our Lord's command, if there 
were nothing better in reserve for us, if all 
must die with us. (i Cor. xv. 19.) But with 
this hope we are exceedingly consoled, power- 
fully withheld from sin which is the only hin- 
drance to our happy resurrection, strongly in- 
cited to virtue which is the means of procuring 
it, and fortified to endure patiently all the evils 
of this life, remembering the truth that St. 
Paul also teaches us : ■" The sufferings of this 
time are not worthy to be compared with the 
glory to come, that shall be revealed in us." 
(Rom. viii. 18.) All the afflictions we are 
capable of suffering now, do not approach in 
greatness the glory that is promised us. 

It was to strengthen faith in this mystery, 
that our Lord did and said many things, that 
he remained on earth forty days after his re- 
surrection, and appeared so frequently to so 
many persons. And the apostles in their 
preaching and in their writings endeavored 
to make it understood, and to impress it upon 
the minds of their disciples. 

For this reason also Easter is the greatest 
of the Christian feasts. It is the Feast of 
feasts, says St. Gregory Nazianzen ; it is the 
celebration of celebrations, and the grandest 
day of the year. Not that the resurrection 
26 



302 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

of the dead is the greatest of all mysteries ; 
nor that it equals in any degree the mystery 
of the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, or 
Pentecost ; but because all the other mys- 
teries tend to it, and the whole economy of 
our religion is directed to the glorious resur- 
rection of our bodies, which will render us 
afterward perfectly happy. We would not be 
happy if our bodies as well as our souls did 
not partake of our happiness ; for the soul 
alone is^ not man, but the soul and body 
united. 

Therefore it is very important for us to be 
well persuaded of our future resurrection, and 
to firmly believe this truth. To effect this, 
let us frequently make acts of lively faith, 
saying with the apostles : " Credo resnrrec- 
tionem mortuornm, et vitam ceternam. Amen. 
I believe in the resurrection of the dead, and 
life everlasting. Amen." 

Let us say with the holy man Job: "I 
know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the 
last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I 
shall be clothed again with my skin, and in 
my flesh I shall see my God. Whom I myself 
shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and 
not another." (Job. xix. 25, 26, 27.) I know 
with the infallible knowledge faith gives me, 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 303 

that my Redeemer, from whom I expect my 
salvation and happiness, liveth, and that at 
the last day I shall go forth from my tomb 
in the vigor of life ; that after my death my 
bones will again be covered with their flesh, 
and that in my own body and with my own 
eyes I shall see the God whom I adore, and 
that it will not be another who will see him 
for me. 

2. Hope. 

Our Lord by his resurrection has given us all 
a solid hope of rising one day with him, and 
of enjoying a glory, in some degree, like his. 
"God," says the apostle, "hath quickened us 
together in Christ, and hath raised us up 
together, and hath made us sit together in 
the heavenly places." (Ephes. ii. 5, 6.) God 
has given us in Jesus Christ and through his 
merits the life of grace ; he has raised us 
to glory, and has assigned us our places in 
heaven. If he be risen to a glorious life, 
doubtless we who have the honor of being 
his members, will rise with him to the same 
life ; for it is not possible that the head alone 
should return to life without the body, but all 
the members must necessarily partake of its 
happiness, and rise with it. 



304 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

The same apostle says again : " By a man 
cam,e death, and by a man the resurrection of 
the dead." (i Cor. xv. 21.) As death entered 
the world by a man, that is by Adam when he 
sinned, so the resurrection of the dead also 
came by a man, who is our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
as Adam contained in himself, in the order of 
nature, all men, inasmuch as they are all his 
posterity, so our Lord contains them all in 
himself, as regards the order of grace, because 
it is from him alone that they receive grace. 
Furthermore, just as in the person of Adam 
when he fell, when he died by sin, forfeited 
original justice, and was driven from the ter- 
restrial paradise, we all fell, died, lost justice, 
and were banished in him from that abode of 
delights ; just as we all were reduced to those 
misfortunes, so we have all risen from the 
tomb and returned to life with our Lord in 
his resurrection. 

As the member dies with the head, the 
branch withers with the root, the stream dries 
up with its source, and the ray is eclipsed 
with the sun, and the same member lives 
again with the head, the branch revives with 
its root when in the spring-time it receives 
from it moisture and sap ; the stream flows 
once more when its source is full, and the ray 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 305 

reappears when the sun having broken through 
the cloud and dissipated the storm is again 
visible ; so neither more nor less do we die 
wifti our Lord dying, and we rise with him 
when he rises, because he is our head and we 
are his members, he is our root and we are 
his branches, he is our source and our sun and 
w r e spring from his fountain and emanate from 
his rays. St. Leo says : " We have been cru- 
cified, we have died, we have been buried with 
Jesus Christ, and likewise we have risen with 
him the third day." (Serm. 2 de Resurr.) 

If you desire to know how we rise with our 
Lord, and in what manner his resurrection is 
the cause of ours, the Angelical Doctor teaches 
it w r ith much precision, explaining to us two 
principles : the first, that the thing which is 
the first of each kind or species, is always the 
cause and pattern of the things that follow 
and descend from it ; as appears in Adam, 
the first man, and in the animals which were 
the beginning and progenitors of their species. 
Now the first who rose to die no rriore is with- 
out contradiction our Lord, whence St. Paul 
calls him "the first fruits of them that slept," 
(i. Cor. xv. 20,) that is, of the risen dead ; not 
that he w r as the first who came back from 
death to life, since he himself had resuscitated 



306 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

Lazarus and others ; but because he was the 
first to rise to a glorious and immortal life. 
Consequently, his resurrection is the cause 
and law of ours. 

According to the second principle, experi- 
ence teaches us that a cause always produces 
its effect upon the object nearest to it, and 
then transmits it through this object to others 
more remote ; thus fire warms first the air 
directly around, then through this air com- 
municates warmth to the whole atmosphere ; 
and we see how the magnet attracts first the 
iron close to it, then through this the more 
distant masses. Even so the Divinity, that is 
life in very essence, first communicates life to 
the dead body of our Lord for the reason that 
it is personally united to this body ; then, 
through our Lord to all other bodies. (Summa 
p. 3, q. 57, a. I.) 

From this we should infer that the nearer 
we approach our Lord, the more closely we 
are attached to him, the more intimately 
united with him by faith, hope, charity, and 
the other virtues, the more brilliant and glo- 
rious will our resurrection be, because his will 
act more powerfully and more abundantly 
upon ours. 

On this our hope is founded ; our Lord's 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 307 

resurrection assures us of ours, and strengthens 
us in our assurance. Tertullian said : " The 
trust, and the sweetest expectation of Chris- 
tians, is the resurrection of the dead. (L. de 
Resurr. Carnis c. 1.) And St. Augustine: 
"This is our hope, the foundation of our faith, 
the solace of all our sufferings in this evil 
world, and the nerve of our perseverance." 
(In. Ps. 65.) 

Thus the holy man Job, seated upon his 
dunghill, in the midst of his greatest suffer- 
ings and the sharpest of his pains, while 
scraping with his diamond, his ruby, I mean 
his piece of broken pottery, his sores and the 
matter that exuded from his infected body, 
after having made the act of faith in the future 
resurrection which we have already quoted, 
concludes : " This my hope is laid up in my 
bosom." (Job xix. 27.) I cherish in my 
spirit the hope of this happiness, I keep it in 
my breast as a thing whose memory I care- 
fully preserve^ that I do not wish to forget 
but to have ever before my eyes, and as 
something most rare, a precious jewel, which 
I singularly value and press to my heart to 
strengthen me to bear my miseries. 

Asfain, while in the same condition, he savs : 
'' I expect until my change come." (Job xiv. 



308 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

14.) I rest in the hope of my change ; I await 
the hour when my body subject to so many 
infirmities, to so many diseases and to death, 
my soul prone to so many vices, my mind so 
ignorant and dark, my will so inert, so inclined 
to the love of creatures and so little touched 
with the love of my God, my passions so 
irregular and difficult to govern, and all with- 
in rne where sin has left such fatal marks of 
its malignity and has produced so much cor- 
ruption, will be changed and come to its last 
perfection and beatitude. 

We ought to make use of these words and 
to produce frequently acts of hope of our 
resurrection, in order to animate ourselves to 
endure our trials patiently ; and to give us 
more courage and even joy, it will be well to 
represent to ourselves the ravishing beauty, 
the admirable light surpassing that of the sun, 
the agility, the subtilty, the immortality of 
our risen bodies, and the torrents of unspeak- 
able delights in which they will be immersed 
forever. * 

J. Joy- 

The hope of all these blessings firmly es- 
tablished in our souls is, without doubt, capa- 
ble of affording us singular satisfaction, and 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 309 

of causing us to pass our life in very great 
joy ; because the certain hope of a great 
good fills the soul with joy. " Rejoicing in 
hope," says St. Paul. (Rom. xii. 12.) Rejoice 
in the unfailing hope of being eternally happy 
if you live well. As the resurrection of our 
Lord gives us this hope, it consequently gives 
us a reason for this joy. 

" This is the day which the Lord hath made ; 
let us be glad and rejoice therein," sings the 
Royal Prophet. (Ps. cxvii. 24.) This is the 
day the Lord hath made ; let us rejoice and 
let us leap for gladness on this day. Some 
have thought these words referred to the day 
of the Incarnation, when the Son of God 
clothed himself with our nature that he might 
deliver us from our miseries and enrich us 
with his blessings. The Church applies them 
to the day of our Lord's circumcision which 
is the octave of his birth when he appeared 
visibly to the eyes of men, and the first day 
which he empurpled with his blood for their 
love, and which also is the opening day of the 
year. St. Jerome and St. Augustine consider 
that the words refer to the whole period of 
the New Law, in which we should be always 
happy, because we have tokens and infallible 
assurances of our beatitude in the future life 



310 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

if we keep God's commandments ; and in the 
present life that nothing" can injure us except- 
ing sin, but all may be very advantageous to 
us if we use it well. 

This is why it may be said of Christians 
with much more truth than an ancient writer 
said of the Platonists : "We who are of the 
family of Plato and his disciples, banish from 
our midst all sadness and discontent, and ad- 
mit only what is gay, heavenly, and divine." 
(Apuleius.) Thus St. Paul says to all, as 
well as to the Philippians : " Rejoice in the 
Lord always ; again I say, rejoice." (Philipp. 
iv. 4.) Rejoice always in our Lord ; again I 
beg you, rejoice, because you have great rea- 
son to do so. St. Francis used to tell his 
religious that it was the business of the devil 
and his followers who were on the road to 
hell, to be sad ; but it was for us to rejoice, 
and to exclude from our hearts sadness and 
grief. 

The holy Fathers, however, and the Church 
generally, understand the words of David to 
apply to the day of our Lord's resurrection ; 
therefore the Church frequently repeats them 
during the octave of that feast, because we 
have all very great reason to rejoice on that 
day. There was nothing in the universe that 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 3 1 1 

had not in our Lord's resurrection a new mo- 
tive of joy, his Father in heaven, his Mother 
and his disciples on earth, the saints in limbo, 
and all men everywhere. St. Peter Damian, 
writing to Pope Nicholas II., even says, as 
coming from Archbishop Hubert, that the 
damned, in honor of the resurrection of our 
Lord and the joy it brought to the world, re- 
ceive every Sunday some diminution of their 
torments, some alleviation of their pains. This, 
if true, must be understood of the pains of the 
senses. 

But what is true and a great cause of joy 
on the feast of the Resurrection, is that 
all the faithful, or the greater number, who 
were in a state of sin, have, in prepartion for 
this feast, purified their consciences by Con- 
fession and Communion ; that is, on this 
day more than on any other of the whole 
year there are more true Christians, more 
souls in a state of grace, God has more ser- 
vants, the Church more children, Jesus Christ 
more living members and more brethren. 

For these reasons St. Augustftie said that 
Easter-day seemed to him more beautiful than, 
other days, that the sun appeared to his eyes 
to shine with a different light, that its aspect 
was more gladsome than ordinarily; that the 



312 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

stars showed themselves more adorned, more 
richly clothed, and the elements were gayer 
and more joyous. (Serm. 136. de temp.) And 
to the present time it is the custom in the 
Greek Church for the faithful on Easter morn- 
ing to joyfully embrace one another, saluting : 
"Jesus Christ is risen !" and replying: "Yes, 
he is truly risen !" The signification of this is 
the argument of St. Paul : We shall rise one 
day like him, consequently we should rejoice. 

Therefore the proper affection and the espe- 
cial sentiment of Easter-day, and of the whole 
Paschal season, is a holy joy and a sentiment 
of divine gladness. Hence Tertullian said : 
" From Easter to Pentecost we should rejoice 
and preserve our souls in a holy gaiety." (L. 
de Corona mil. c. 3.) For the same reason 
the Church during all this season sings so 
frequently, and jubilantly echoes her A lleluias. 

It is our duty, then, to follow her guidance, 
and to adopt her sentiments, endeavoring to 
fill our souls with a divine joy, and to partici- 
pate in that immense satisfaction our Lord 
received in his resurrection, when he beheld - 
himself victorious over all his enemies, cov- 
ered with sovereign glory, and enjoying a life 
eternally blessed. This is why he says to 
us : " That my joy may be in you, enter 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 3 1 3 

thou into the joy of thy Lord." (Jno. xv. 11, 
and Matt. xxv. 21.) And the Church begins 
the Mass of the Saturday in the Octave of 
Easter, with these words of David : " He 
brought forth his people with joy, and his 
chosen with gladness." (Ps. civ. 43.) The 
Lord has brought his people with jubilation, 
and led his elect with pleasure. He has guided 
them with songs of gladness and with canti- 
cles of joy. 

^. Contempt of the Goods and Evils of this 
Life. 

That great, solid, and divine joy with which 
the resurrection of our Lord and the other 
mysteries of this season embalm our spirits, 
should cause us to scorn the goods and evils, 
the joy and the bitterness of this life. 

First, the goods and pleasures : Just as a 
''great and powerful monarch filled with all. 
the contentment of earth, as Solomon was, 
makes no account of the puerile pastime 
children find in building mud-houses and 
walking on stilts, so we should pay no at- 
tention to the trifling goods of this world. 

Joy, says Aristotle, flows into a soul either 
from the possession of a desired good, or from 
the certain and sure hope of possessing it. 
27 



314 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

Now we have in the present life a hope as 
certain as the existence of God is, that if we 
observe his commandments, we shall enjoy 
the riches, honors, and great and lasting 
pleasures of paradise. Even now every just 
man possesses the treasures of grace, sancti- 
fying grace, charity, the theological and moral 
virtues infused and supernatural, the gifts of 
the Holy Ghost, and the glory of being a 
child of God, a brother, coheir, and living 
member of Jesus Christ, and a companion of 
the angels ; goods so great that in compar- 
ison with the least of them, all the empires, 
all the riches, all the magnificence, and all 
the possessions of earth are not worth a 
straw, are not so • much as the light of a 
candle to the rays of the sun. Therefore 
we have a wonderful reason to rejoice, and 
to hold in contempt all the goods and all 
the joys of this life. 

Were the absolute gift of a hundred mil- 
lion of dollars in gold to be made to a man 
carried away with the love of riches, or if 
this gift were not bestowed directly, but a 
promise made that in three weeks he would 
certainly receive it, who can doubt but that 
he would feel inexplicable joy, that he would 
be almost beside himself at the prospect of 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 315 

attaining a good so great in his estimation, 
and so comformable to his desires ? More- 
over, would he not have reason to scorn a 
trifling sum of money, would he need to worry 
about the loss of a farthing ? We have much 
greater reason to do the same, since we are far 
richer ; and the goods that are promised us 
are not distant if we make ourselves worthy 
of them, because our life is so short. 

But the trouble is Ave do not appreciate our 
riches, whence it happens that we make great 
account of those of earth although they are 
very petty and uncertain. In this we resemble 
some very rich and powerful king, but who is 
still only a child ; the weakness of his, age 
renders him incapable of enjoying his wealth 
and of esteeming the greatness of his fortune, 
and causes him to weep and cry if he is re- 
fused an apple. " O children, how long will 
you love childishness, and the unwise hate 
knowledge ?" (Prov. i. 22.) Little children, 
true children, w T ith the affections and desires 
of children, how long will you love playthings, 
and hold wisdom in aversion ? 

Secondly, the joy of the Resurrection should 
make us scorn the evils of this life and enable 
us to bear them, not only with patience and 
meekness, but with a certain insensibility, just 



3 1 6 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

as a man whose soul is penetrated with ex- 
treme pleasure, all dissolved in joy and inun- 
dated with delight, does not feel the prick of 
a pin. 

For this object we should wisely banish all 
the dark and melancholy thoughts, all the 
discouragement and mistrust, all the trouble 
and discontent that may attack us, as so many 
malignant vapors, and divert ourselves with 
the agreeable thought of the blessings of 
grace and glory that we may possess now 
and forever, and say with St. Paul : " Know- 
ing that he who raised up Jesus will raise us 
up also with Jesus." (2 Cor. iv. 14.) We be- 
lieve that he who raised up Jesus will raise us 
with him, freed from all evils and filled with 
every good. 

5. Prayers and Requests. 

We must earnestly pray to our Lord, beg- 
ging him with great affection to be pleased to 
rise in us, to accomplish in our interior and 
exterior the effects of his holy and glorious 
resurrection, and to produce in our soul and 
body a light, an agility, a subtilty, and an 
immortality of grace, while we await that of 
glory. We must pray him to produce in us 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 3 1 7 

= 
the impressions of virtue and perfection, to 

give us the sentiments of piety the faithful 
received when he appeared to them during 
the forty days he remained on earth after his 
resurrection. We must implore him to im- 
press on us the particular grace of his ascen- 
sion, which consists in an ascension of our 
souls and an elvation of our spirits above all 
the things of earth, with a true contempt of 
all the honors of the world, its riches and 
pleasures, as being infinitely below the bless- 
ings in store for us, and the greatness of a 
true Christian. 

We should pray and conjure the Holy Ghost 
to effect in us a new Pentecost, to come to us 
in the form of a tongue of fire to purify us, to 
strengthen us, to illumine us, to warm us, to 
burn and change us, and to reform our tongues 
in speech and silence. We should supplicate 
him with all the earnestness possible that, as 
his seven gifts are absolutely necessary to 
bring the virtues to perfection, and to enable 
us to lead lives truly Christian, spiritual, and 
divine, he would have the goodness, he who 
is himself essential and personal goodness, to 
pour them into our souls with abundant pro- 
fusion. 



3 1 8 Practice of Union ivith Our Lord 

III.— THE VIRTUES. 
i. A Heavenly Life. 

St. Paul says : "As Christ is risen from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, so we also 
may walk in newness of life." (Rom. vi. 4.) 
As Jesus Christ is risen for the glory of his 
Father, and by his resurrection to commence 
a new life, suitable to the dignity of the Son 
of God, so we, to imitate him, must live a new 
life. The word Easter obliges us to it, because 
it signifies, according to St. Jerome, a change 
and a passage. St. Bernard says, referring to 
it: "Our Lord passing to a new life, invites 
us to follow him, to change our lives." (Bern. 
Serm. 1. de Resurr. Dom.) 

Let us no longer live as we have lived, with 
thoughts, words, and works that are entirely 
for earth ; but let us live for Heaven. St. 
Paul says to us, as well as to the Colossians : 
44 If you be risen with Christ, seek the things 
that are above, where Christ is sitting at the 
right hand of God. Mind the things that are 
above, not the things that are upon the earth. 
For you are dead, and your life is hidden with 
Christ in God." (Coloss. iii. 1, 2, 3.) You are 
dead in Jesus Christ to sin and to all the 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 319 

things of the world, and your life is hidden 
with his in God. 

Assuredly the members must participate in 
the dispositions of the head, and it is not pos- 
sible for them to live separated from its life. 
This is why, having the honor to be members 
of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ being risen, 
and we risen in him, we must now lead, like 
him, a heavenly life, conducting ourselves 
here below as inhabitants of the other world. 

In another place, St. Paul tells us : "Their 
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly 
things. ' Our conversation is in heaven." 
(Philipp. iii. 19, 20.) The glory, riches, plea- 
sures, and all the actions of those who boast 
of being Christians, and nevertheless are at- 
tached to the earth, will turn to their confu- 
sion. But our conversation, and that of all 
who worthily bear this illustrious name and 
are living members of Jesus Christ, our honors, 
our riches, our satisfaction, and the whole 
tenor of our life, prove us to be persons who 
profess a heavenly life, who value and con- 
temn, who love and hate, who seek and avoid 
things, after the fashion of the dwellers in 
heaven. 

If one of those blessed souls that rose with 
our Lord, and united to their bodies, are now 



320 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

in heaven, should be permitted by God to 
return, to earth to live with us, what would 
be his thonghts ? What his affections, his 
words, and his works ? How would he not 
scorn gold and silver, precious stones and pal- 
aces, sceptres and crowns ? He would find 
bitter our sweetest delights, and the most 
beautiful countenances would appear to him 
very ugly. He would say to those who would 
be astonished at his contempt and his senti- 
ments : I have tasted other delights, I have 
seen other beauties, I have known other hon- 
ors and other riches ; all that I behold on 
earth is only fit to amuse children who have 
no knowledge of higher things. 

In this sense God says to the Christian soul 
by his prophet: " I shod thee with violet- 
colored shoes." (Ezech. xvi. 10.) I have shod 
thee with the heavenly blue, meaning to tell 
that soul that its feet, that is its affections, its 
desires and hopes, should continually aspire 
to heaven, and that all its steps should lead 
to that blessed abode. The belief of the 
Church, which the painters have followed in 
their pictures, is that our Lady, as an expres- 
sion of her sentiments elevated above the 
earth, a sign of her heavenly life, was always 
clothed in blue. 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 32 1 

On the day of the Ascension, which is an- 
other mystery of this season, the day when 
our Lord ascended in body and soul to heaven, 
the Blessed Virgin and the apostles who were 
spectators of that admirable triumph, followed 
him with their eyes, and still closer with their 
hearts which that glorious conqueror carried 
with him ; so that thenceforward they led even 
more than before a life entirely in heaven. 
Certainly the most noble bearing and the 
most beautiful posture of the Christian is that 
of the apostles, accompanying our Lord in his 
triumph, and keeping the eyes of the soul, its 
thoughts and affections, inseparably fixed on 
heaven as the goal of its desires. 

Hence we read of several saints, as St. Fran- 
cis and his first disciple, the Blessed Bernard 
of Quintavalle, St. Ignatius, our founder, and 
others, that they took great pleasure in gaz- 
ing at the heavens, and spent much time in 
contemplation of that abode of their felicity, 
because this gaze and contemplation gave 
them courage, strength, joy, and a profound 
contempt of the things of earth. St. Ignatius 
exclaimed : " Qtcam sordet tellns cum ccehtm 
aspicio ! " " How miserable appear to me the 
things of earth, and all that is most charming 
in it, when I consider the heavens, and what 



322 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

is there prepared for us ! " Theodoret relates 
that St. Simeon Stylites passed the days and 
nights upon his column, standing, with his 
eyes and arms raised to heaven, and that he 
exhorted the crowds that came to see him, 
to gaze only at heaven, and to fix there their 
hearts. The greater part of Christians raise 
their eyes to heaven only to see what the 
weather is, which direction .the wind comes 
from ; but they ought to lift their eyes, and 
look at it J frequently and attentively, as the 
magnificent palace of their eternal dwelling 
furnished with glory and riches, and all sorts 
of delights, the palace God has built, w T hich 
our Lord has purchased for them, and where 
their relations and friends await them. 

This heavenly life is the. Christian life, the 
spiritual and divine life which the Holy Ghost 
inspired to the faithful when he descended 
upon them on the day of Pentecost, and 
which he daily inspires to us ; a life in which 
we are dead to sin, according to St. Paul, and 
" alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. vi. 
n) ; a life in which we endeavor to make our- 
selves, like the dead, insensible to a thousand 
things, in which we value no more than the 
dead do all that men admire and esteem upon 
earth ; a life in which we live with interior 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 323 

joy, with peace and tranquillity, amid all the 
evils that afflict us, resting upon the hope of 
the good things that 'will one day be ours. 

O happy life ! foretaste of heaven upon 
earth ! Life of* God and in God, upon the 
pattern of the life of Jesus Christ, and con- 
sequently life of joy, in which the Holy 
Ghost on Pentecost established the faithful ! 
Life of peace, which our Lord also after his 
resurrection wished and gave so many times 
to his disciples, saying to them: " Pax vo- 
bis" Peace be with you ! I leave you peace ; 
I give you my peace, not that which the world 
gives, and which rests on vain honors, perish- 
able riches, and the satisfaction of the senses ; 
but peace of the soul and repose of the spirit 
amid your afflictions and all the vicissitudes 
of your mortal life, which is founded on con- 
tempt of the honors, riches, and pleasures of 
earth, for it is this contempt which produces 
this peace and repose. Thus St. Bernard 
said: "Give me a soul to which contempt 
of all the things of earth has given peace, 
and w T hich it has put at rest." (Serm. 74 in 
Cant.) 

It is thus we must express in our life the 
mysteries of the resurrection and ascension of 
our Lord, and ardently desire to draw him into 



324 Practice of Union zvitli Our Lord 

us in these states, so as to imbibe their spirit 
and bear their marks. For, as we have already 
said, we must represent in ourselves the mys- 
teries of our Lord, if we wish to receive their 
fruits. 

St. Augustine savs : " All that was done on 
the cross of our Lord, at his burial, in his 
resurrection, and his ascension into heaven, 
was intended to be reproduced spiritually, not 
only in words but in effects, in the Christian's 
life on earth." Then, explaining himself in 
detail, he continues : 

" For it has been said by St. Paul, speaking 
of the cross, that those who make profession 
of being disciples of Jesus Christ, have cruci- 
fied their flesh with their vices and concu- 
piscences. Speaking of the sepulture of our 
Lord, he says : We have by baptism been 
buried with Jesus Christ to die to sin. Of his 
resurrection : As Jesus Christ rising from the 
dead with the immortal and glorious life he 
received from his Father, lived after his resur- 
rection differently from before, in like manner 
we, 'after his example, forsake our former life, 
despoil ourselves of our old habits, to lead a 
new life. Finally, as regards the ascension, 
the apostle said : If you be risen with Jesus 
Christ, make it appear by seeking and tasting 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 325 

the things which are in heaven, where Jesus 
Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and 
not those of earth." (Euchir. c. 53.) 

Thus the Christian should bear the features 
and lineaments of our Lord's mysteries en- 
graven upon his person ; and should be in his 
life, as it were, an image of Jesus Christ dead, 
buried, risen, and ascended into heaven. 

2. Life of Love tozvard our Lord. 

One of the principal and most suitable affec- 
tions that should be produced in our hearts 
by the mysteries of the Paschal season, is an 
ardent love toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 
There are two powerful reasons to enkindle 
this love, namely : the death he has, as it 
were, just suffered for us, with its testimonies 
of his infinite love ; and the ravishing beauty 
of his risen body, which, without contradic- 
tion renders him the most beautiful object, 
and therefore the most worthy of love, in all 
the world. 

These two reasons were indicated by David 
in Psalm XCIL, which, according to the in- 
terpretation of the Fathers and of the univer- 
sal Church, treats of the beauty, glory, and 
power our Lord acquired by his death and 
resurrection. " Dominus regnavit, decorum 
28 



326 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

indutus est" — The Lord hath reigned, he is 
clothed with beauty and glory. " Dominus 
regnavit " — the Lord hath reigned — and is be- 
come King and absolute Lord ; first, over all 
his enemies, whom he has subjugated and con- 
quered forever ; and secondly, over men, whom 
he has gained to his kingdom by his love and 
benefits. But how has he reigned ? "Domi- 
nies regnavit a ligno" sings the Church. The 
Lord hath reigned by the wood of his cross, 
or by dying, and by his death he has made 
himself the victor over death in his resurrec- 
tion. "Decorum indutus est"— he has been 
clothed with sovereign beauty, w r ith most ra- 
diant glory, and w T ith every attraction. These 
two motives are doubtless very efficacious to 
-cause us to love our Lord perfectly, and to 
■experience toward him all the sentiments ex- 
pressed by the Spouse in the Book of Can- 
ticles. 

Let us now consider the first of these mo- 
tives, the passion and death our Lord was 
pleased to endure for our salvation. It obliges 
us to love him by every title of justice ; for, in 
the first place, he has purchased us at the 
price of his blood, so that our bodies, our 
souls, our hearts, and our affections no longer 
belong to ourselves, but to him. - " You are 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 327 

not your own," says St. Paul, " for you are 
bought with a great price." (I. Cor. vi. 19, 20.) 
You are not your own, but belong to him who 
has purchased you so dearly. In the second 
place, if we did not of right belong to him, 
the excessive love he has borne us, and the 
death he has suffered for our sakes, should 
force us to love him ; inasmuch as the most 
powerful motive for love is love itself, and it 
is extremely difficult and almost impossible 
not to be won by a person who loves us deep- 
ly. For this reason, the same apostle in the 
following words excites the Corinthians, and 
us with them, to love our Lord : " The charity 
of Christ presseth us ; judging this, that Christ, 
died for all, that they also who live may not 
now live to themselves, but unto him who 
died for them." (II. Cor. v. 14, 15.) The love 
of Jesus Christ urges us and does us violence, 
when we consider how he died for all, so that 
they who live, grateful for such an excess of 
love, may no longer live for themselves, but 
for him who has given his life for them. 

St. Bernard expresses the same sentiment 
when he writes : V If I owe to our Lord all I 
am, and am bound to love him because he has 
created me, what do I not owe him, and how 
am I not obliged to love him for having crea- 



328 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

ted me anew, and in such a manner ! " (Tr. 
de dilig. Deo.) In another place he says : 
4k It is true that the benefit of creation, that 
of preservation, and so many others which our 
Lord has bestowed, and continues to bestow 
upon me, are powerful motives to incite me to 
love him ; but there is another that urges me 
still more, since it affects me more sensibly 
and fires me more intensely than aught, else. 
It is, O good Jesus, the chalice of bitterness 
thou hast drunk for us and our redemption 
that renders thee amiable to our hearts ; for 
this sovereign benefit and this incomparable 
testimony of thy love, carries away and most 
powerfully ravishes ours, most sweetly attracts 
our affection, most justly exacts it, most 
closely binds it, and most strongly touches 
it." (Serm. 20, in Cant.) 

Verily, if a wise, virtuous, and valiant prince, * 
one endowed with all perfections of body and 
mind, had taken up arms in your interest, to 
defend your honor that wicked tongues had 
sullied, to deliver you from infamy, poverty, 
and a cruel prison, and to elevate you to 
sovereign honors, exceeding great riches, and 
a most happy liberty ; and if, in combating 
your enemy who had caused you all these 
misfortunes, he had been put to death, and 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 329 

not only put to death, but left on the field 
pierced with wounds and covered with his 
blood : I ask you, in the first place, whether 
you w r ould not consider yourself obliged during 
the remainder of your life to love this prince 
most ardently, to love this benefactor, even if 
he were not a prince, but merely an humble 
peasant? I ask you, in the second place, 
whether, in case you did not love him, you 
would not deem yourself most ungrateful, bru- 
tal, and unworthy of the life, honor, and bless- 
ings he had restored to you ? In the third 
place, whether you could help loving him, 
whether you could help thinking of him ? 
Assuredly, no. Now, from this you can 
understand your position in regard to our 
Lord, how you should act toward him, since 
he holds the position of this prince to you, 
and has even infinitely greater claims upon 
you. 

" Mors et vita duello conjlixere mirando ; 
Dux vitee vwrtuus, regit at vivus.^ 

6 ' Together, Death and Life in a strange conflict strove ; 
The Prince of Life, who died, now lives and reigns," 

sings the Church in the Prose of Easter ; and 
in the Preface of the Mass of Easter-day she 
says: "Mortem nostrum moriendo destruxit!' 



330 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

By dying- he has destroyed our death, and 
fought and defeated all our enemies. 

To pass to the second motive for love of 
our Lord, namely, his beauty and perfections. 
The Royal Prophet says : " He is clothed with 
beauty" (Ps. xcii. i) ; and in another place : 
li His glory is great in thy salvation ; glory 
and great beauty shalt thou lay upon him." 
(Ps. xx. 6.) Oh ! how great was his glory 
when by thy power thou didst save him from 
death and deliver him from the tomb. Thou 
didst clothe him with majesty and give him a 
wondrous beauty. This is what St. Paul wrote 
to the Hebrews : u We see Jesus for the suffer- 
ings of death, crowned with glory and honor." 
(Hebr. ii. 9.) We know that Jesus as the 
recompense of his death, is now crowned with 
glory and honor, for in Psalm VIII. we find 
these words : " Thou hast crowned him with 
glory." (Ps. viii. 6.) 

Our Lord being so admirably beautiful, and 
radiant, with such great glory and so many- 
perfections, is undoubtedly the object most 
worthy of love in all the world, and con- 
sequently the one we ought to love above 
everything and with the whole strength of 
our affections. We know and learn from too 
many examples the immense power physi- 



F?-om Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 331 

cal beauty exercises over minds ; what then 
should be the effect of our Lord's unsurpass- 
ing beauty. on our minds and hearts? If the 
least of the blessed, who is united to his body, 
should descend here below and become visible 
to the eyes of men, his beauty would excite, 
such great astonishment and admiration, that 
all would be in transports and raptures ; they 
would swoon, languish, pine away, and die, 
if we may so speak, at his feet. For if a 
mortal beauty sometimes produces these ef- 
fects, an immortal, compared to which the 
mortal is nothing, would doubtless do the 
same, and in a much greater degree ; such 
unequaled beauty w r ould create so violent a 
desire to behold it, that people would hasten 
from all directions and all co.untries, would 
forsake all, leave every occupation, to enjoy 
such a spectacle, to gaze upon so ravishing 
an object. 

Now, if the beauty of the least of the blessed 
would be capable of producing such marvel- 
ous impressions upon men who would never 
have received from it any other good, how 
should we not be impressed by the infinitely 
surpassing beauty of our Lord, which infinitely 
excels theirs, cur Lord who by the innumer- 



332 Practice of Union zvith Our Lord 

able benefits he has conferred upon us, merits 
all the love of our hearts. 

Let us remark that the greatest miracle of 
beauty that was ever known is our Lord Jesus 
Christ, because he possesses the three most 
beautiful things. His sacred body is unques- 
tionably the most beautiful and most pleasing 
of all bodies ; his holy soul the most excellent 
of all souls, and endowed with the most per- 
fect of minds ; and his divinity is the beauty 
of beauties, in comparison with which all cre- 
ated beauties are only as the stars before the 
sun, nay, even seem like visions of ugliness. 

These two reasons ought to kindle in our 
hearts ardor and zeal for our Lord, and cause 
us to lead a life of love for him, as he has led 
a life of.loye for us ; and as a means to this 
life we should •frequently think of him, sigh 
for him, and produce acts of the love of pre- 
ference, of the love of complacency, of good 
will, of aspiration, and others, and should seek 
only his interests through the motive of love 
for him. 

The Holy Spirit, whom St, Peter calls the 
Spirit of Christ (i Peter i. n), and whom our 
Lord calls his Spirit, because he proceeds from 
him as well as from the Father (Jno. xv. 26 ; xvi. 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 333 

13), and Christ has merited for us his coming ; 
the Holy Spirit, who is love in essence and m 
person, on the day of Pentecost inflamed the 
hearts of the- faithful with love for our Lord, 
and engraved in their souls the new law, whicli 
is a law of love differing only from the old 
law, as St. Augustine said, by these two short 
words, Timor et Amor — Fear and Love ; a 
saying that St. Thomas repeats : " The dif- 
ference between the old and new Testaments 
is little — fear and love." (In. c. 13, Jno.) The 
old law w r as a law of fear ; the new is one of 
love, which enjoins as its first and chief com- 
mandment, and in a manner much more em- 
phatic than in the old law, to love God with 
all our strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. 
We accomplish this perfectly when we love 
our Lord, because he is in the first place God, 
and in the second place our neighbor, since he 
is man, and the most important of men ; and 
he is the first of our neighbors, because he has 
approached so near us, has united himself per- 
sonally to our nature, and daily unites himself 
with us in the adorable Sacrament of his Body 
and Blood, and because he comes to us in the 
thousands and thousands of blessings which 
he constantly lavishes upon us. 



334 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

J. Firmness and Perseverance in this Heav- 
enly Life, and in this Life of Love. 

This is what we should learn from our Lord 
risen, of whom St. Paul says : " Christ rising 
again from the dead, dieth now no more ; death 
shall no more have dominion over him." (Rom. 
vi. 9.) He is in a state of inviolable stability, 
of immortal life. We likewise, having formed 
the design of rising with our Lord, and by our 
resurrection of leading a heavenly life, a life 
of love toward this same Lord, must not give 
up and return to creatures, to our affection 
for the things of earth. 

Let us remember that our Lord's resurrec- 
tion is an everlasting resurrection, and that 
the Passover is a passage, a transition, not a 
return, as St. Bernard explains when he says : 
"Jesus Christ, to-day while we celebrate the 
Feast of his Resurrection, has not returned to 
the tomb, but is still risen ; has not gone 
back, but has passed onward ; has not lin- 
gered behind, but has hastened forward. The 
word Easter declares this by its very mean- 
ing, for it signifies passage, not return. The 
country of Galilee whither the disciples re- 
paired to meet their risen Lord, also ex- 
presses by its name, not a drawing back, but 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 335 

an advance. What shall we reply to this, save 
that we take away from the sacred resurrec- 
tion of our Lord its name of Easter, when we 
return- to our vices instead of advancing more 
in virtue ?" (Serm. 1, de Resurr.) 

The difference between the resurrection of 
the good and of the bad, of the perfect and 
the imperfect, is that the former constantly 
progress in the virtuous life already begun, 
and the latter readily draw back ; the former 
rise to die no more, the latter rise but to fall 
anew beneath the power of death. Our Lord 
rose to an immortal life, as a sign of which, 
and to show that he would have no more 
need of it, he left his winding-sheet in the 
tomb. When Lazarus rose he was still 
wrapped in his because it would again be ne- 
cessary to him ; and in fact -he died again ; 
which should teach us that when our resur- 
rection is made in our burial-clothes, I mean 
our passions and bad habits with no effort to 
divest ourselves of them, we will easily fall 
again and return to our vices. Therefore, en- 
deavor to rise as our Lord did. 

St. Bernard says : " Virtue and perseverance 
in good works is that perseverance to which 
alone the crown is promised and given. For 
what does it profit to be good, wise, and 



336 Practice of Union witJi Our Lord 

strong, if we do not continue to be so, if we 
do not preserve our goodness, wisdom, and 
strength to the end ?" (De Pass. Dom. c. 14.) 
What use is it to have well commenced, if we 
finish badly? Saul, Solomon, and Judas, all 
made good beginnings ; but how did they 
end? The first killed himself; the second 
fell into idolatry ; and the third, after having 
sold the Saviour of the world, hanged himself. 
It is not enough to begin well, but it is all to 
end well. Thus St. Jerome says: "We do 
not regard in a Christian how he commences, 
but how he finishes." Of a truth, it helps very 
little toward the winning of a prize, to have 
begun the race well if we do not press on to 
the end of the course. 

For this reason our Lord tells us : " He that 
shall persevere unto the end, shall be saved " 
(Matt. x. 22) ; and he alone shall be saved. 
In the Book of Ecclesiasticus we read : " Woe 
to them that have lost patience, and that have 
forsaken the right ways." (Eccl. ii. 16.) Woe 
to them that have retired from the race, that 
have lost their constancy, that have given up 
their exercises of devotion, that have turned 
aside from the right path. This turning aside 
and this inconstancy can only be most hurtful 
to them. As a traveler advances on his road 



s 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 337 

only by walking and continuing to walk, so 
we make progress in the way of virtue only 
by persevering. 

But as this perseverance, this continuation 
of the same efforts, of the same attention and 
application to our exercises of piety, is one of 
the most difficult things for our virtue, feeble 
and changeful as it is, it easily relaxes and 
grows cold. Therefore we must reanimate 
and strengthen it with great care and skill, 
and when it is in some degree benumbed and 
asleep, we must awaken it, spurring and en- 
couraging ourselves by some powerful reason, 
and especially by insisting on the necessity of 
this perseverance in order to pursue again, and 
joyfully, our road, and to continue our course. 

Let us consider, in order to establish our- 
selves in this important truth, what was said 
to our Lord as he hung on his cross, and what 
he did. Here is what St. Bernard says about 
it. The Jews had cried out to our Lord : Let 
him come down from the cross and we will 
believe in him ! This holy father says : " On 
the contrary, he did not come down, but re- 
mained and died thereon, so that he might 
ascend to heaven. Let us- who follow Jesus 
Christ our Head, in like manner hearken to 
no one, neither to flesh, nor blood, nor to any 

29 



338 Practice of Union with Our Lord 

spirit that would persuade us to come down 
from the cross. Let us remain on the cross, 
let lis die on the cross, and let us be taken 
down as he was, only by the hands of others, 
and not by our own levity and inconstancy." 
(Serin, i. de-Resurr.) 

But as this unfailing constancy in good and 
even unto death, and the grace of final per- 
severance upon which our salvation absolutely 
depends, are very great gifts of God, which 
we are incapable of meriting any more than 
the first grace, we must earnestly beg them 
of God by all that can move him, especially 
by the perseverance and holy death of his 
Son. 

St. Cyprian and St. Augustine say that be- 
cause the gift of perseverance is the most im- 
portant of all gifts, our Lord composed the 
Lord's Prayer, which we repeat many times 
every day, particularly to make us ask God 
for perseverance, and to obtain it from his 
mercy, and this they prove by the following 
details (Cypr. L. de orat. Dom. — Aug. L. de 
dono Persev. c. 2) : 

The first petition is: " Hallowed be thy 
name." Tn this petition we do not ask God, 
say these saints, to be sanctified in himself by 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 339 

our prayers, since he is already infinite sanc- 
tity, but to be sanctified in us ; that we having 
been sanctified by the waters of baptism, may 
ever continue so. We pray him that this sanc- 
tification may remain inviolable in us. We 
beg him continually, we supplicate him day 
and night to preserve in us without intermis- 
sion the life of grace which his goodness has 
bestowed upon us. 

li Thy kingdom come." It is clear that in 
this petition we ask for final perseverance in 
virtue and grace, since this is absolutely ne- 
cessary to reach God's kingdom. 

" Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven." St. Cyprian thus explains these 
words : by earth he understands our bodies, 
and 'by heaven our souls ; and he says that we 
pray God to give us grace to accomplish with 
both his holy will This will, St. Augustine 
adds, must be fulfilled to the end by him who 
would attain beatitude. 

"Give us this day our daily bread." Upon 
this petition St. Cyprian remarks : " We ask 
this daily bread to obtain the gift of perse- 
verance, for fear lest,, being united by grace 
to Jesus Christ, and daily receiving the Eu- 
charist as the food of salvation, we should 



340 Practice of Union with Onr Lord 

commit s'ome mortal sin which would render 
us unworthy to partake of that heavenly 
bread, and so would separate us from the 
body of Jesus Christ." 

" Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive 
them that trespass against us." These two 
saints consider that this petition does not re- 
gard final perseverance ; but others think it 
has reference to that grace, because as sin is 
more than anything else an obstacle to per- 
severance, inasmuch as it deprives the soul 
of sanctifying grace, diminishes actual graces, 
and thus takes from the soul the power of 
persevering, so they deem the pardon of it 
necessary in order to avoid further sin, to 
overcome temptations, to practice good works, 
and persevere in them to the end. 

"And lead us not into temptation, but 
deliver us from evil." St. Augustine says : 
What else do we ask by this prayer, but to 
persevere and die in holiness ? 

As final perseverance is the gift of gifts upon 
w r hich depends the security of our eternal hap- 
piness, and as the Lord's Prayer was com- 
posed principally to ask and obtain it of God, 
let us remember to make it one of our chief 
intentions when we repeat this prayer. 



From Easter to the Blessed Sacrament. 341 

IV.— MEDITATIONS. 

These should be made on the mysteries of 
the season. The author refers to several 
meditations in a work called " The Illumina- 
tive Life of Jesus in the Desert" as being 
Very suitable to enkindle love for our Lord. 

V.— READING. 
See this heading in Chapter III. 

VI.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in 
the last day I shall rise out of the earth ; this 
my hope is laid up in my bosom." (Job. xix. 
25. 27.) I believe that my Redeemer, after 
having passed through the pangs- of death, is 
now living, and that I shall rise at the last 
day and shall see him with my eyes. I bear 
this hope in my breast and in my spirit, and it 
strengthens and- consoles me. 

" But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will 
joy in God my Jesus. The Lord God is my 
strength, and he will make my feet like the 
feet of harts ; and he, the conqueror, will lead 
me upon my high places singing psalms." 
(Hab. iii. 18, 19.) Let others rejoice if they 
will in the perishable things of this life ; as 



342 Practice of Union with Our Lord. 

for me, I will rejoice because our Lord is risen, 
and by his resurrection gives me hope of ris- 
ing one day with him. It is in Jesus, my Go.d 
and my Saviour, that I rest all my content- 
ment and all my pleasures. The Lord God 
is my strength, and he will give me the feet 
of the stag"; having himself conquered death, 
he will give me grace to conquer it, and will 
raise me up to high things and to my beati- 
tude, where I shall sing canticles of praise and 
joy. 

44 Thou art beautiful above the sons of men." 
(Ps. xliv. 3.) The Lord my Saviour is beau- 
tiful above the children of men ; he has far 
greater attractions and charms than creatures 
have. 

44 Persevere under discipline." (Heb. xii. 7.) 
Persevere constantly in your exercises of 
devotion, and be exact to perform them with 
care and fruit. 

44 Remember Lot's wife." (Luke xvii. 32.) 
Remember Lot's wife, who having turned her 
head to look back at the city of Sodom, and 
not having kept on her way as she ought, was 
struck dead on the spot and changed into a 
pillar of salt, to teach us perseverance, to 
make us wise at her expense. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PRACTICE OF UNION WITH OUR LORD IN 
THE MYSTERY OF THE EUCHARIST FROM 
TFIE FEAST OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 
TO THE MONTH OF AUGUST. 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

The exercise of this season will be upon the 
adorable mystery of the most holy EUCHA- 
RIST, considered both as a Sacrament and as 
a Sacrifice. 

The practice will be to say or hear Mass, 
to communicate sacramentally or spiritually, 
and to visit the Blessed Sacrament with new 
care and increased devotion. 

II.— THE AFFECTIONS. 

The two principal mysteries of our Lord 
Jesus Christ are his Incarnation and his Death, 
the beginning and close of his mortal life. By 
his Incarnation he united himself to our na- 
ture in an individual humanity, and by this 
union infinitely ennobled and honored it ; by 
his Death he saved it, drew it from the abyss 
of its miseries, and loaded it with his bless- 



344 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

ings, and rendered it capable of the possession 
of God, and of eternal beatitude. 

The mystery of the Eucharist includes, ac- 
cording to St. Thomas, that of the Incar- 
nation, because the Incarnate Word unites 
himself to all individual men who receive the 
Eucharist, and becomes incarnate in a certain 
manner in them. It likewise effectively re- 
presents the death of Christ, it transmits the 
grace of his death, and communicates its sal- 
utary effects. God found out this admirable 
invention to renew in us these two mysteries, 
and to apply to us their fruits ; like a second 
Incarnation it produces in us union with our 
Lord, and it is the chief channel through 
which flaw to us the merits of the cross and 
the gifts of God. 

This is why whosoever desires to receive 
these abundantly, and to be united intimately 
with Jesus Christ, should approach this divine 
mystery with great care, and should' do as 
far as he can what St. Bonaventure relates 
of St. Francis : " He w r as transported by the 
strength of his affection for the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, and experienced toward it ardors and 
fires of love that consumed him internally, 
leaving him plunged in most profound aston- 
ishment at that favor so full of extreme love 



Fro7ii Corpus CJiristi to August. 345 

and infinite kindness which God deigns to 
show to men." (In vita S. Franc, c. 9.) 

As the beatitude of heaven in the state of 
glory is Jesus Christ, God and man — to see 
him, love him, possess him, be united to him, 
speak to him, converse with him, and remain 
perpetually in his society — even so the hap- 
piness and perfection of earth in the state of 
grace is Jesus Christ and the same relations 
between him and us. And since we have Jesus 
Christ, God and man, on earth substantially 
and in person only in the Blessed Sacrament, 
we ought to do all in our power to bind and 
unite ourselves to the Blessed Sacrament, and 
lit it to Jesus Christ, by faith in the mystery, 
by adoration, hope and love, by sacramental 
and spiritual communions, by frequent visits, 
and by all the other means that may procure 
us that happiness. 

Verily, Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is all 
our good in this life, our treasure on earth. 
St. Theresa after her death appeared, endowed 
with admirable beauty and resplendent with 
most clear light, to a virtuous person, and ad- 
dressed her these remarkable words bearing 
on our subject : " We who are in heaven, and 
you who are still on earth should be united 
in love and purity ; we beholding the Divine 



346 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

Essence, and you adoring the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, toward which you should do what we 
do toward the Divine Essence." Such were 
her words. 

Let us now consider what is the occupation 
of the blessed in regard to the Divine Essence. 
They are intimately and inseparably united to 
it ; they look upon it and contemplate it in- 
cessantly, and this gaze, this contemplation 
renders them holy, wise, impeccable, tranquil, 
contented, and happy, and causes them to 
burn with the love of so amiable an object, 
and to scorn in comparison with it all the 
most precious and most beautiful things of 
earth as so much dirt and mire. 

We ought to conduct ourselves as far as we 
can in the same manner toward our Lord in 
the Blessed Sacrament, and to receive from 
him the same effects ; we ought to unite our- 
selves continually to it by interior acts of the 
virtues, with the eyes of faith to behold him 
everywhere in it, to converse with him, and 
by this vision and conversation to acquire ho- 
liness, and lead a life of perfection in great 
contempt of all the things of earth ; and finally, 
to find in this mystery all the happiness we are 
capable of enjoying in this world, for, as St. 



From Corpus Christi to August. 347 

Jerome says (Hieron. in c. 3. Eccles.) : "We 
have in this life this single good, that we are 
nourished with his flesh and refreshed with his 
blood." 

As the blessed see in the Divine Essence all 
that concerns their beatitude, and are therein 
enlightened with regard to all that pertains 
to them in the state of glory, in the same 
manner we should learn from the Holy Eu- 
charist all that concerns our salvation, and 
find in it instructions for all that regards our 
conduct here below in the state of grace. 

III.— THE VIRTUES. 

Isaiah, in the thirtieth chapter of his pro- 
phecy addresses us words of great consolation, 
and makes us on the part of God a rich prom- 
ise, when he says : u The Lord will give you 
spare bread, and will not cause thy teacher to 
flee away from thee any more ; and thy eyes 
shall see thy teacher, and thy ears shall hear 
the word of one admonishing thee behind thy 
back : s This is the way, walk ye in it and go 
not aside, neither to the right hand nor to the 
left." (Is. xxx. 20, 21.) The Lord will give 
you bread, and will not permit you to lose 
sight of your doctor and your master ; your 



348 Union zvith Our Lord in the Eucharist 

eyes shall see him, and your ears shall hear 
him tell you : This is the road that you must 
take ; follow it without turning a single step, 
neither to the right nor the left. 

The prophet promises us bread and a mas- 
ter. It would seem that there could be no 
connection nor relation between these two 
things ; nevertheless there is, and in a close 
degree, because by this bread is meant the 
Eucharistic bread, and by this master our 
Lord, who under the accidents of this bread 
teaches us in an excellent manner the spirit- 
ual life, and gives us .lessons of very high per- 
fection. Our Lord in his character of master 
has had three chairs whence he has taught 
men by example : the first was his crib, the 
second his cross, and the third is the Euchar- 
ist, of which these words of Isaiah are princi- 
pally to be understood, especially where they 
tell us that God will no more take away our 
teacher ; because the first two chairs exist no 
longer, but the third remains forever. From 
this third chair our Lord in person teaches us 
at all times and in all places what we ought 
to do to become virtuous, spiritual, and per- 
fect. And now hearken to his lessons. 



From Corpus Cliristi to August. 349 

/. This Divine Master s first lesson from the 
Chair of the Eucliarist. 

This first lesson is on the very essence of 
the spiritual life and the fundamental point of 
perfection, which consists not in exterior 
things, but in interior ; not in actions of the 
body, but in those of the soul ; that is, in mak- 
ing in the depths of our souls, acts of the vir- 
tues, in uniting ourselves interiorly to God 
who is within us by acts of faith, hope, and 
charity ; in having in all our actions pure in- 
tentions, and in performing all our works in 
view and remembrance- of the presence of 
God. Because all in the spiritual life is hidden 
it is called the spiritual life rather than the 
physical or corporal life, the interior life in- 
stead of the exterior. The Royal Prophet 
expresses this thought when he says: "All 
the glory of the king's daughter is within." 
(Ps. xliv. 14.) All the glory and beauty of 
the king's daughter, the just soul, is within, 
not without. The prophet says all, not a 
part ; so the spiritual man conceals under a 
common and often abject exterior, an interior 
quite divine, by which he produces extraor- 
dinary and admirable operations. 

Isaiah says : " Thy eyes shall see thy teach- 
30 



350 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

er." (Is. xxx. 20.) Thy eyes shall see thy 
Preceptor who from the chair of the Eucha- 
rist gives thee this lesson and teaches thee 
this important truth ; because under an ordi- 
nary exterior, under the accidents of bread 
and wine, which are such common things, he 
conceals the three greatest and most perfect 
beauties of the universe, to wit : his sacred 
body, his most holy soul, and his divinity ; 
and in addition to these, the hypostatic union 
which is the most precious and most noble 
union that is possible. Thus St. Thomas tells 
us in his beautiful hymn : 

1 ' Sub diver sis speciebus 
Signis tantum, ei non rebus 
Latent res exiniicc" — (Lauda Si on.) 

" Here, beneath these signs are hidden 
Priceless things, to sense forbidden ; 

Signs, not things, are all we see." 

Even so all the glory and excellence of the 
Blessed Sacrament is within, not without ; and 
we may say to our Lord w T ith the prophet 
Isaiah : " Verily thou art a hidden God." (Is. 
xlv. 15.) 

Truly spiritual men are the same ; they are, 
as David calls them, hidden men ; what is 
visible is the least Dart of their possessions ; 



From Corpus Christi to August, 351 

their glory and riches are concealed under a 
common appearance and ordinary ways. 

We ought to learn and carefully retain this 
first lesson of our divine Master, namely, that 
our virtue and perfection do not consist in 
exterior things, no matter how good. and holy 
they may appear, but in interior ; in regula- 
ting, purifying, and sanctifying our thoughts, 
affections, desires, and impressions, and in 
uniting ourselves to God who is within us by 
secret acts of the virtues. This is why St. 
Paul tells us : "I say, then, walk in the spirit." 
(Gal. v. 16.) I warn you to walk with the 
spirit, and to perform all your actions like 
spiritual men who are prompted by interior 
motions of grace. The first direction for 
reaching perfection that Wisdom gave to 
Blessed Henry Suso, was, as he himself re- 
lates : " My son, study to dwell always in the 
depths of thy spirit, and to cultivate and 
polish unceasingly thy interior man." 

It -is by this striving after the interior life 
we must judge of progress in virtue and dis- 
tinguish those who are truly spiritual from 
those who are so only in appearance, who 
apply themselves much more to correcting, 
composing, and fashioning their exterior than 
their interior ; the really spiritual do quite 



352 Union with Our Lord in the EucJiarist 

the contrary, imitating the wisdom of nature 
which in forming our bodies does not neglect 
the skin, the hair, nor the extremities, but 
nevertheless labors with more diligent care in 
perfecting the noble parts that are internal 
and the centres of life. The spuriously spirit- 
ual imitate art which occupies itself only with 
what is exterior and striking to the eye, and 
does not think of giving life and sentiment to 
its w r ork. 

2. The Second Lesson, 

Our Lord in working the miracle of the 
Eucharist produces admirable changes, be- 
cause he destroys the substances of the bread 
and wine, and converts them into his body 
and blood without touching the visible acci- 
dents of the one or the other, the color, the 
figure, the taste, or the odor ; just, St. Thomas 
says, as' he entered the most pure womb of 
his holy Mother, without tarnishing in any 
degree her virginity, but rather consecrating, 
sanctifying, and deifying it by his entrance. 
And truly he is powerful enough to accom- 
plish this wonder, since, the same saint adds, 
we see mother-birds changing into flesh and 
a living bird the yolk of the egg they cover 
without breaking the shell ; it is certainly 



From Corpus Christi to Aztgust. 353 

much easier for our Lord who is God to change 
the substances of bread and wine into his body 
without injuring the species. 

Thus it is only the interior things, tha,t is, 
the substances of the bread and wine that are 
changed and destroyed in the Eucharist, and 
the exterior things, as the color, figure, and 
other qualities, are preserved in their integrity; 
for there is the same whiteness, the same 
round figure before and after the consecration 
of the host. Here is a lesson which teaches 
us, in the first place, that Jesus Christ in the 
Eucharist and received by the faithful, pro- 
duces in them marvelous changes for virtue 
and perfection. And in the second place, 
that these changes are interior and not exte- 
rior ; for, in order to make us virtuous and 
perfect he does not necessarily alter our con- 
dition, our country, or our employment, but 
our heart ; the merchant continues a merchant, 
the married remain married, the tradesman 
does not leave his shop, the exterior and visi- 
ble qualities are still the same ; but the infe- 
rior — the thoughts, views, affections, desires 
and plans — become quite different. In the same 
manner as the body of Jesus Christ takes be- 
neath the accidents the place of the substance 
of the bread which is destroyed, the spirit of 



3 54 Union zvitJi Our Lord in tJie Eucliarist 

Jesus Christ, which is a spirit of humility, 
obedience, patience, and all the virtues, takes 
in the faithful who communicate the place of 
the spirit of the ofd man, a spirit of ambition, 
disobedience, anger, and all the vices, so that 
they become that new creature of whom St. 
Paul speaks so much, who has new eyes, new 
ears, new thoughts and affections, and can 
exclaim w r ith the same apostle: "I live, yet 
not I, but Jesus Christ who liveth in me !" 

Thus, then, the accidents in this divine 
mystery a're preserved in their integrity and 
properties ; if they are changed at all, they 
are only, by a glorious advantage, made much 
more perfect in order that they may work and 
act above the scope of their nature ; being 
mere accidents, they continue to produce the 
effects of their own substance, though they no 
longer serve it, but Jesus Christ instead. In 
the same manner our Lord, retaining the mer- 
chant in his traffic, the artisan at his work, 
and the married man in his family, teaches 
them to perform their actions which hitherto 
had no purposes save those of earth, for God's 
glory and their own salvation. 

Therefore, as the apostle counsels : " Let 
every man- abide in the same calling in which 
he was called." (i Cor. vii. 20.) Let each 



From Corpus Christi to August. 355 

remain in his vocation and in the state to 
which he was called ; let him not think of 
changing it, but rather of excelling in it and 
of performing its duties with an interior spirit. 
As it is the same Jesus Christ in all the Hosts, 
no matter of what bread they may be made, 
provided only it is wheaten bread, and like- 
wise in all the wine, and in all alike he glori- 
fies God his Father and accomplishes our 
salvation; so in all states of life and in all 
situations, however different, we may find Jesus 
. Christ, and may advance his honor and our 
salvation. 

j. The Third Lesson. 

Our Lord in this mystery also instructs us in 
the very important doctrine of intentions, and 
makes us understand the power they have to 
give our actions great value and high merit. 

The species of bread and wine are very 
common and mean things, since they are only 
accidents and not substances ; yet notwith- 
standing they are so vile and abject, in the 
Blessed Sacrament they are by their union 
with the body of our Lord so elevated and 
ennobled as to become venerable and ador- 
able, and to exact from those who touch or 
even look at them, reverences, genuflections, 



356 Union zvith Our Lord in the Eucharist 

and the worship of Latria ; whilst without that 
union, they are only profane and can be 
touched, handled, and eaten by all indiffer- 
ently and without respect. Consider the dif- 
ference between a consecrated Host and one 
that is not consecrated. Could there be a 
greater ? 

This should teach us that our actions, how- 
ever trifling they are, may become very ex- 
cellent and very meritorious if we perform 
them through a good motive. In Christian- 
ity the intention gives its value and impor- 
tance to the act. Is there anything less than 
a glass of water ? Yet if you give it with a 
good intention you will in heaven receive an 
eternal reward. St. Isidore, to select this saint 
from among many who were of low condition, 
was a laborer ; he cultivated the land, sowed, 
gathered the harvests, took care of horses, and 
performed many other humble actions belong- 
ing to his condition ; by means of these, how- 
ever, he became a saint, he pleased God ex- 
ceedingly, and won a very high degree of 
glory in heaven, because he performed them 
with most pure and perfect intentions. 

Let us do the same with regard to all our 
actions, however little they may be ; let. us 
seek, by performing them through the motive 



From Corpus Christi to August. 357 

of love for Jesus Christ, to have our Lord ele- 
vate them in all their parts, by a union of 
charity, as he elevates by a sacramental union 
all the parts of the species, and by that union 
ennobles, sanctifies, and deifies them. If there 
were a part that he did not unite himself with', 
it would not be ennobled nor sanctified, but 
would continue to be profane, vile, and value- 
less. It is the same with our actions in regard 
to our intentions. 

Therefore bend all your efforts to obtain 
that your thoughts, affections, words, and all 
your works may be constantly animated by 
good intentions, that our Lord may touch 
them, and by his touch elevate, sanctify, and 
deify them ; that your thoughts, your affec- 
tions, and all your actions may be in some 
sort consecrated like the species of the Host, 
so as to have our Lord united to them to vivify 
them by his spirit. And since he is present 
in this adorable mystery for the glory of his 
Father, for your salvation, and from the love 
he bears you, act in all things for the glory of 
God, for that of our Lord, and for his love. 

^. The Fourth Lesson. 

Our Lord is in the Blessed Sacrament like 
a spirit, that is, entire in the whole Host and 



3 S 8 Union with Our Lord in the EucJiarist 

entire in every one of its parts, so that there 
is not a single part however small it may 
be, of which, placing the point of a pin upon 
it, you may not say : Our Lord is entirely 
there ; his head, his arms, and his feet, with- 
out separation, without confusion, and without 
division, are in the extremities and the circum- 
ference of the Host as well as in its centre. 

From this we should learn that we ought 
to apply ourselves unreservedly to what we 
do, not alone to the whole, but to each part 
or portion ; that we ought to be as attentive 
to the progress and completion of an action 
as to its beginning, if we would perform it 
well. We often fail in this through a very 
prejudicial illusion of the devil, detaching our 
thoughts and attention from a present action 
to bestow them upon the future ; and in so 
far as we yield to this suggestion of our enemy, 
and to our own inconstancy, we perform the 
present action badly, and the future one no 
better, because when its time comes, through 
the same artifice and the same inconstancy, 
we think only of what is yet to follow. Let 
us keep to what we are doing, let us think of 
no more than is necessary to accomplish it 
well ; each thing should have its time and 
proper attention. 



From Corpus Christi to August. 359 

Moreover, when a Host is broken, our Lord 
is not broken nor bruised with the species, but 
he always remains in his integrity, and is en- 
tire in each part. 

' ' Fracto demum Sacramento 
Ne z'acilles, sed memento 
Tantum esse sub fragmento, 

Quantum toto tegitur. 

Xulla r el fit sa'ssura, 
Signi tantum fit fractura . 
Qua nee status nee statura 
Signatl ihimdtttr. 

!' Xot a single doubt retain, 
When they break the Host in twain, 
But that in each part remains 

What was in the whole before. 
Since the simple sign alone 
wSuffers change in state or torm, 
The Signified remaining one 

And the same forevermore," 

sings St. Thomas in his celebrated hymn. 
Neither more nor less than one sees his whole 
face in each part of a broken mirror, so, if our 
condition obliges us to employ ourselves in 
several different occupations, and, as it were, 
to divide and share ourselves, this division 
should be only exterior, and not interior and 
in the spirit, which should ever continue recol- 
lected, and should invariably act in the pres- 



360 Union zuith Our Lord in the Euc/iarist 

ence of God and for the single purpose of his 
<7lorv\ 

5. Tlic Fiftli Lesson. 

This lesson is one of very high perfection, 
because it inculcates our self-annihilation, in 
which the height of perfection consists. Thus 
the blessed in heaven are perfect because God 
is their all in all, and they are nothing in any- 
thing to themselves. " All in all," as St. Paul 
says. (1 Cor. xv. 28.) In the same manner 
we here below are perfect according as we 
are no longer our own, but God's. 

Our Lord teaches this exalted doctrine in 
the Blessed Sacrament, where, as well, as in 
the mystery of his Incarnation and in that of 
his death, these words of the apostle may 
be applied to him]: " He emptied himself." 
(Philipp. ii. 7.) 

Our Lord empties himself in this adorable 
mystery, first, by descending to earth and 
uniting himself, glorious as he is, to a most 
vile thing, that is to say, to the accidents of 
bread and wirre, and not to the substance 
which is nobler. Secondly, by hiding his 
body his soul, his divinity, and all that he is, 
under the species, of a little host, in such a 
manner that nothing of him appears. Third- 



From Cor pits Christi to August. 561 

ly, by putting himself, though he is living and 
immortal, in the host in a state of death, for a 
representation of the death he suffered on the 
cross. Fourthly, although he possesses in the 
Blessed Sacrament his body, his eyes, his ears, 
and all his senses, he annihilates himself, by 
remaining there as though his body were not 
a body but a spirit, occupying no space as a 
body naturally does ; he has eyes with which 
he does not see, he has ears but without hear- 
ing, a tongue without speech, a palate that 
does not taste, and all his other faculties of 
sensation which perform no functions ;. he has 
a body that does not lead a bodily life. * Thus, 
he is marvelously annihilated. 

To all this let us add the prodigious annihi- 
lations of humility, obedience, and patience 
that our Lord practices in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. 

What humility to place his infinite majesty, 
to conceal his resplendent glory under a veil 
so contemptible as the species ! to despoil his 
body, that miracle of corporal beauty, of all 
its attractions, and to reduce it to a point! 
Thus is the God of glory humbled ; thus is 
the Infinite Majesty brought to a state of ex- 

* It may be well to remark here that theologians differ ill their 
opinions regarding this. — Tratislator. 

31 



362 Union wiih Our Lord in the EucJiarist 

treme and continual abasement, and that in 
innumerable places, for love of us, and to 
teach us to abase and humble ourselves for 
him ! 

How great is his obedience, he whose sov- 
ereignty and absolute power extends over all 
the universe, to respond at the moment 
named, without delay, to the simple w T ords of 
a priest who calls him to descend from heaven 
and place himself beneath the species of bread 
and wine, and keep himself inseparably united 
to them in whatever place they may be put, 
no matter what indignity may be offered to 
;him, until they are decomposed ! And per- 
haps it is his mortal enemy who consecrates 
for devilish intentions, who makes him come 
•so far and as often as he w T ills in order to do 
him outrage ! What an example of obe- 
dience ! 

His patience in this mystery is inexplicable, 
his patience in suffering so many injuries from 
men in the very mystery where they owe him 
most, in the mystery where, as but a thou- 
sandth part of a just gratitude, he should 
receive from them only all kinds of venera- 
tion, homage, and service. Instead of this, he 
receives scorn, insults, and opprobrium from 
infidels and heretics who do not believe this 



From Corpus Christi to August. 363 

mystery, who cast him to the earth, trample 
him under foot, and treat him with horrible 
and abominable indignities. He suffers from 
the faithful who receive him in mortal sin, and 
in venial sin committed through want of pre- 
paration and the requisite attention and de- 
votion, and by hearing Mass irreverently. His 
best friends even cause him to suffer because 
they do not fully acquit themselves of their 
duty in the participation of this divine Sacra- 
ment. 

He suffers greatly in this Sacrament from 
all classes of persons on account of the little 
change it produces in them. If he were capa- 
ble of experiencing a displeasure, it would be 
to him a most sensible one to see this so 
powerful a means to our salvation, this Sacra- 
ment in which he dwells with so ardent a 
desire of sanctifying us and communicating to 
us the fruits of his passion and death, effect- 
ing so little. The devils of the famous pos- 
session of Loudun, after having said of our 
Lord in the Blessed Sacrament many very 
beautiful and very excellent things, gave him 
a name disrespectful for him and shameful for 
us, a name signifying that, after all, he gains 
by means of the Blessed Sacrament little from 
us for his glory and our perfection in compari- 



364 Union ivith Our Lord in the Eucharist 

son with what he deserves, and what he could 
effect if we placed no obstacles in his way. 

Is it not also a great exercise of patience 
for our Lord to remain entire days and nights 
quite alone, to be visited by no one, on this 
throne of his love, whither he has descended 
in order to visit us and to enrich us with his 
gifts ? 

Our Lord excercises in like manner all the 
other virtues, as may be easily remarked by 
whosoever will take a little pains to consider 
them. Assuredly, therefore, it is upon our 
altars that we must seek the school of per- 
fection ; and we must avow that, as the Sacri- 
fice thereon offered is the same in essence as 
that of the cross, the most excellent examples 
of virtue the Son of God has left us, are those 
he gave from the cross and daily gives us in 
the Eucharist, where he not only places them 
before our eyes that we may see them, but 
furnishes us the grace and strength necessary 
to imitate them. 

Behold, then, the lessons of perfection which 
our divine Master gives us from the chair of 
the Eucharist. It remains for us to study them 
and put them in practice. Let us make our- 
selves docile hearers and true disciples of this 
Master, who, being Incarnate Wisdom, and 



From Corpus Chris ti to August. 365 

teaching- us from such a chair and in so beau- 
tiful a manner, merits our fullest confidence, 
and deserves that in obedience to his doctrine 
we should undertake the perfectly spiritual life 
he sets before us. 

This is in fact the life of true Christians. St. 
Paul says of himself and of all : "Though we 
walk in the flesh, we do not war according to 
the flesh." (2 Cor. x. 3.) And again: "We 
walk not according to the flesh, but according 
to the spirit." (Rom. viii. 4.) Even while we 
have bodies and senses we live as though we 
had none, because we do not follow their in- 
clinations, but we live and perform all our 
actions according to the spirit of Jesus Christ 
and the motions of grace. Addressing the 
Roman Christians, the same apostle says : 
"You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit." 
(Rom. viii. 9.) You are in the flesh without 
being of it, because you are in the spirit act- 
ing spiritually. 

St. Justin, martyr, in answering Diognetus, 
Minister of State under Marcus Aurelius, who 
had asked him what sort of people the Chris- 
tians were, and in what they differed from 
other people, wrote to him that they were a 
new species of men differing from others not 
in country or condition, but in habits of life ; 



366 Union with Our Lord in the Eticharist 

for, while other men lived according to the 
flesh, the Christians lived according to the 
spirit, and had all their conversation in 
heaven. 

It is true that in order to lead this life of 
the spirit we must entirely separate ourselves 
from the things to which we are by nature 
attached, and must rise high above ourselves, 
above the body and its senses, above the 
lower part of the soul, to live only according 
to the higher part and according to the spirit. 

The spirit lives in those three excellent and 
divine manners of which Richard of St. Victor 
and St. Bonaventure speak, and which they 
call " the spirit in the spirit, the spirit above 
the spirit, and the spirit without the spirit." 
(Richard L. de Trinit. prolog. — L. 3, De con- 
tempi, c. 12. — Bonav. De sept. itin. acter. d. 
3, prol.) The spirit is in the spirit when, 
abandoning the inordinate care of its body 
and all exterior things, it retires into itself 
to attend to its own needs, and to God who 
is within it, and to apply itself to spiritual and 
divine things. The spirit is above the spirit 
when it contemns and forgets itself, and, by 
the force of its love and the ardor of its desires, 
leaving itself, it hurries away and takes its 
flight toward God, to be employed only in 



From Corpus Chris ti to August. 367 

thinking of him and in loving him alone. 
Finally, the spirit is without the spirit when 
it not only leaves itself to rise above itself, 
but comes even to fade away and lose in 
some sort its being, because it passes into 
another and an incomparably nobler and more 
perfect state, fulfilling the mystical words of 
the prophet Abdias : " They shall drink and 
sup up, and they shall be as though they were 
not." (Abd. i. 16.) 

Water may be thus considered in three man- 
ners : either as water in water, that is in its 
fountain ; or as water above water, that is 
.above its nature when by the action of fire 
it is heated, expanded, and converted into 
steam ; or as water without w T ater when' it is 
mingled in a small quantity with a great deal 
of wine, and, according to some, preserves its 
essence; but loses its name, color, and qual- 
ities, to take those of the wine, which are 
much superior. 

This life of separation, elevation, and anni- 
hilation of self cannot be acquired without 
great effort. But as our Lord gives us the 
example of this life in his person in the 
Blessed Sacrament, he also gives us the as- 
sistance we need in order to practice it ; and 
the special grace of this mystery is to pro- 






368 Union zvith Our Lord in the Eucliarist 

duce it, and so to render us spiritual in a 
hi<jh decree. 

The two principal effects of the Eucharist 
are, first, to unite us with our Lord as he 
unites himself to us, whence it is called com- 
munion, as we have already remarked ; and 
secondly, to enable us to lead a life perfectly 
spiritual, and elevated above the senses and all 
material things, a life modeled upon that which 
our Lord leads in the Blessed Sacrament. 

When you have communicated you are filled 
with Jesus Christ entire, because you possess 
his body, his soul, his divinity, and all that he 
is. Being thus filled -with Jesus Christ, this 
divine plenitude should spread over your soul, 
your body, and your senses, to impress upon 
them a disposition of conformity to him, and to 
communicate to them his virtues ; so that you 
may be united with him as he is with you, and 
that in- your body and in the use of your senses 
you may lead a spiritual, an elevated life, upon 
the model of his, a life above your body and 
your senses, so far as Christian perfection de- 
mands it of you in your actual condition. 

6. Good use of the Blessed Sacrament. 

This point is of infinite importance. As our 
Lord's passion and death is the mystery of our 



From Corpus Chris ti to August. 369 

salvation and happiness, and the most abun- 
dant application of its fruits, and the broadest 
channel through which its merits flow to us, 
is the worthy reception of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, it is evident that we ought to do all in 
our power to receive it worthily. 

Besides, the sacraments of the New Law act 
according to the dispositions of those that re- 
ceive them. Science teaches, and experience 
confirms, that the better and more useful 
things are when they preserve their nature, 
the more injurious and hurtful they are when 
they lose it. We see this in the human body 
which, being the most beautiful and perfect of 
all bodies so long as it is alive and healthy, is 
the ugliest and most infectious when .after 
death it decomposes. There is nothing sweeter 
than honey, and also nothing more bitter when 
it is corrupted. V Corruptio optimi pessima — 
The worst corruption is that of what is best," 
says the proverb. Hence it follows that the 
Blessed Sacrament being the best food our 
souls can receive, the most efficacious means 
of our salvation, the most powerful remedy for 
all our ills, the most sovereign balm for all 
our wounds, and the bond that binds and 
unites us most closely to our Lord, when we 
approach it with the requisite dispositions, 



370 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

produces in us quite contrary effects if we are 
not properly disposed, if we are in a bad state ; 
for, instead of drawing us to our Lord and 
uniting us with him, it disunites and separates 
us from him ; instead of strengthening, it 
weakens us ; it is no longer for us a means 
of salvation, but a cause of ruin and an instru- 
ment of God's vengeance, we no longer find 
in it an elixir of health, a spring of life, but a 
deadly poison. An ancient Father says : '" We 
daily behold a lamentable sight in those who 
approach the most sacred banquet of the E*u- 
charist ; we see some among them growing 
worse, and by their bad use of it hastening* 
rapidly to their damnation and to eternals 
flames." (Philo. Carpath.) They are like the 
unfortunate Aman, who was led from Queen 
Esther's banquet to the gibbet. 

Therefore we should exert all our efforts to 
communicate as perfectly as we are able, as 
regards alike the preparation, the reception, 
and the thanksgiving ; but, since I have in 
another work spoken at length of what is ne- 
cessary in order to do this, we will not here 
dwell upon it. Nevertheless, to animate us 
to new efforts, and to show us still better how 
to unite ourselves with our Lord in the Blessed 
Eucharist, I will say two things : 



From Corpus Christi to August. 371 

The first is concerning the exterior and the 
interior of the mystery. The exterior con- 
sists in the accidents of the bread that strike 
the senses, the color, odor, taste, and form, 
and also in the presence, though invisible, of 
the body of our Lord under these accidents, 
vv 7 here he takes the place of the substance of 
the bread which is destroyed. 

The interior, according to what we said in 
Chapter I., consists in the thoughts our Lord 
has in this mystery. We should reflect that 
as our Lord is in the Host living and glorious, 
and that consequently he has the use of his 
mind, he certainly thinks of something. If 
you ask me of what, I reply that he thinks of 
accomplishing the most adorable mystery and 
the greatest sacrament of his Church ; of re- 
presenting for the glory of his Father and the 
salvation of men his passion and death which 
were the acts most glorious to the Divinity, 
and most profitable to the human race that 
were ever performed. 

He thinks of men, since it is for them he is 
there ; and he thinks of you in particular, he 
is attentive to you, he applies himself to you, 
occupies himself with you ; so when you are 
before the Blessed Sacrament, and when you 
look upon it, you should be persuaded that 



3/2 Union with Our Lord in the Eucliarist 

our Lord who is hidden behind the species, 
looks at you, most surely thinks of you, and 
keeps his mind fixed on your person. 

But what does he think of me, you ask. 
Listen to what he tells you by Jeremiah : " I 
know the thoughts that I think toward you, 
saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of 
affliction, to give you an end and patience. 
You shall pray to me and I will hear you ; 
you shall seek me, and shall find me when 
you shall seek me with all yonr heart." (Jer. 
xxix. ii, 12, 13.) The Lord says to you: I 
have for you thoughts of peace and not of 
affliction, thoughts of love, mercy, and pity. 
I think of delivering you from your miseries 
and bestowing upon you my blessings ; and 
because you must suffer as well as I, I think 
of giving you a happy end of your tribulations, 
and patience in your trials. I think of grant- 
ing you what you ask of me, of allowing you 
to find me when you seek me, of breaking 
your chains and setting you at liberty. 

Moreover our Lord has for you in the 
Blessed Sacrament the thoughts of a father, 
a mother, a spouse, and a sincere friend ; 
thoughts of kindness, liberality, munificence, 
and infinite profusion of all he possesses, in 
order to enrich you with the treasures of 



From Corpus Christi to August. 373 

his grace and prepare you for those of his 
glory. 

He thinks of giving you his flesh and blood, 
his body and soul, his humanity and divinity, 
to nourish you, strengthen you, justify, sanc- 
tify, and deify you. 

He thinks of making plainly known to the 
whole universe the incomparable love he bears 
you, which caused him to invent so wonderful 
a means of enabling you to eat his flesh and 
drink his blood, and this so frequently and 
without apprehension or disgust, in order to 
reproduce in you in a certain manner the mys- 
tery of his Incarnation and to apply to you 
abundantly the fruits of his death, in order to 
enter your body and soul really and substan- 
tially and to unite himself intimately with 
you — that love which prompted him to bring 
all this to pass, to work in himself, and in 
nature, unheard-of things, to exert the great- 
est efforts of his omnipotence. 

Thus he thinks of you. On your side, think 
of him and address him in these words of 
David: " Thou hast multiplied thy wonderful 
works, O Lord my God ; and in thy thoughts 
there is no one like to thee." (Ps. xxxix. 6.) 

Thou, my Lord and my God, hast done for 
me many wonderful things, and strange acts 
32 



374 Union with Our Lord in the Eucliarist 

of providence and love ; and the thoughts 
thou hast for my salvation are beyond all that 
can be expressed. 

Again address him in these words of Isaiah : 
" Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, 
and give glory to thy name ; for thou hast 
done wonderful things, thy designs of old 
faithful, amen. Thou hast been a strength to 
the poor, a strength to the needy in his dis- 
tress, a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow 
from the heat." (Is. xxv. I, 4.) 

O Lord, thou art my God. I declare aloud 
to all the universe that I recognize and hold 
thee for my God. I w T ill praise thee, I will 
honor thee, and I will bless thy holy name 
because thou doest wonders for me, and hast 
old and faithful thoughts of kindness toward 
me, and cares tenderer than those of a father 
or a mother. Thou dost render thyself in this 
mystery where I behold thee, the strength of 
the weak, the riches of the poor, and the 
refuge of the needy in their misfortunes. Thou 
art a shelter from the tempests, a cover from 
the fierce heats of temptation, from persecu- 
tion, and from all evil. 

Do thus, so that you may say with the 
spouse of the Canticle : " My beloved to me, 
and I to him. I to my beloved, and his turn-* 



From Corpus CJiristi to August. 375 

ing is toward me." (Cant. ii. 16 ; vii. 10.) My 
beloved is mine and I am his ; he thinks of 
me and I think of him ; he is attentive to me 
and I am attentive to him. 

The next point to consider regarding the 
interior of the mystery of the Blessed Eucha- 
■ rist, is the affections that therein move our 
Lord's will ; these are a burning zeal for the 
glory of God, an ardent, tender, caressing 
love for you, a love that overcomes all diffi- 
culties, works miracles, and is constant and 
unchangeable ; an earnest desire to be united 
to you and to have you united with him so 
that he and you should be but one, thus ac- 
complishing his promise that whosoever should 
eat his flesh and drink his blood should' have 
with him a union so close and intimate that 
the one would abide and live in the other, and 
that he would enable the creature honored by 
such a union to lead a pure, holy, and divine 
life like unto his own (Jno. vi. 57) ; and finally, 
a strong desire that all Christians should be 
united among themselves by the bond of a 
most perfect charity. 

The third point is our Lord's most pure 
intentions for the glory of God, and for our 
good, our salvation, sanctification, and deifica- 
tion, the ends for which he instituted the 



376 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

Blessed Sacrament and for which he dwells 
in it. 

The fourth point is the virtues which he 
there exercises in their highest degree, hu- 
mility, obedience, patience, meekness, annihi- 
lation of self, freedom of spirit, and several 
others. 

The fifth is the grace he has merited for us, 
and gives us that we may faithfully correspond 
to his dispositions in this mystery, imitate the 
virtues he teaches us in it, and sanctify our- 
selves by making a worthy use of it. 

My second remark is that one of the most 
astonishing things in the Church is that our 
Lord being'truly received in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, and received with all his gifts, all his 
merits, and all his treasures, and burning with 
the desire of communicating them to us abun- 
dantly, of bestowing them upon us in profu- 
sion, and received so frequently, nevertheless 
produces in us so little effect, and that we 
still find ourselves after so many communions 
so poor, so destitute of real virtue and so full 
of faults. 

Is it not like saying that the sun does not 
give light, fire does not warm, the abundance 
of treasures does not enrich, strength does not 



From Corptis Christi to Angus t. 377 

strengthen, perfection does not make perfect ? 
To say this would appear very strange. 

We see the effects of the sun upon the 
earth. It is the sun that produces by means 
of other secondary causes the plants, the 
flowers, animals, stones, metals, and every- 
thing in the material world ; we find his heat 
so intense in midsummer that we cannot re- 
main exposed to his rays without being 
scorched ; yet he is so distant that there are 
more than ninety millions of miles between 
him and us. What, then, would happen to 
the earth, how would we not be burned if the 
sun should approach but one-half nearer ? If 
he should come close to us we would in an in- 
stant be in flames, we would be consumed like 
straw and reduced to ashes. 

Why may we not say the same of our Lord ? 
Is he not the Sun of Justice ? Has he not as 
much and infinitely more heat and power to 
make himself felt in our souls, than the mate- 
rial sun has to act upon our bodies ? Whence 
is it that being so powerful, and not far dis- 
tant from us, but near us, even within us, he 
effects so little ? So far from inflaming and 
burning us, he does not even warm us. 

Our Lord said that his flesh was truly a 
food, a meat capable of producing in our souls 



3 7 8 Un io n zvitli Our Lord in tJi e EucJi a ris t 

the effects that material food has upon our 
bodies, namely, nourishment and strength. 
Where are these effects ? A morsel of dry 
and inanimate bread often strengthens your 
body more, and a glass of water refreshes it 
more than Jesus Christ, his body, soul, divin- 
ity, with all his merits and all his power, 
strengthen your soul. 

Are you contented to remain always the 
same ? Are you not willing to dispose your- 
self so that the Blessed Sacrament may do as 
much for your soul as a morsel of black bread 
does for your body ? 

He who enters within you is Jesus Christ, 
the omnipotent God, who can, if you desire, 
deliver you from your vices and make you vir- 
tuous and perfect. It is he who from the be- 
ginning of the world has justified all the just, 
sanctified all the saints, and perfected all the 
perfect. It is he who inspired the martyrs 
and gave them their fortitude, who imparted 
to the confessors their devotion and to the 
virgins their purity. 

He is willing, assuredly, to produce in you in 
some degree the same effects ; he desires it 
ardently, as he proves by the prodigies he has 
performed to establish the Eucharist. 

A single reception of our Lord, a single 



From Corpus Chris ti to August. 379 

Communion, would be enough, if you were 
excellently disposed, to make you holy, and 
to cause you to lead ever after a life altogether 
perfect and divine. And you have received 
him so many times, yet no such results have 
appeared ! So many journeys that he has 
made from heaven to earth for you, so many 
miracles that he has worked in himself and in 
nature, have produced nothing in you ! 

Do you not think that it pains the Son of 
God, if we may so speak, after having given 
you, after giving you so frequently, so power- 
ful a remedy for your infirmities, so efficacious 
a means of acquiring humility, obedience, 
patience, detachment from creatures, and 
perfection, to gain nothing in you, to see his 
journeys lost, to be thus deceived in his ex- 
pectations and frustrated in his most ardent 
desires ? 

Reflect that the devil asks nothing better ; 
for as he hates our Lord with a mortal hatred 
and is the sworn enemy of his glory, he is 
very glad to see that this means of our salva- 
tion wherein our Lord abides in person, where 
he lavishes the treasures of his wisdom and 
goodness, where he displays his power by the 
miracles he works, and where he applies 
himself with so much affection to the affair of 



33o Union zuith Onr Lord in the Eucliarist 

our sanctification, does not succeed, effects 
nothing in us, but leaves us as imperfect as 
it found us. I say nothing here of your own 
disadvantage nor of the loss you sustain, 
which it is impossible to estimate. 

But whence arises this misfortune, why is it 
that our Lord accomplishes so little in us by 
means of the Blessed Sacrament ? It comes 
from our negligence ; it is because we approach 
the Holy Table without preparation, through 
custom and routine ; because we receive sloth- 
fully and with a certain vicious insensibility, 
without reflection and without devotion ; be- 
cause after having received we leave our Lord 
quite alone, and do not ask him to .penetrate 
our soul, to purify and sanctify it ; because we 
do not take pains to keep him with us and to 
employ well the precious moments of his stay 
when he is more ready than ever to enrich us 
with his gifts and load us with his graces, since 
his only purpose in coming to us was to be- 
stow them upon us. Even as the material 
sun produces its effects only according to the 
dispositions or qualities of the objects it shines 
upon — we see it at the same time and with the 
same ray melting wax and hardening the 
earth — so the Sun of Justice acts differently 
upon souls according as they are prepared. 



From Corpus Chris ti to August. 381 

Therefore let us awaken from our slumbers, 
and let us chase away the sloth in which our 
souls have so long stagnated, let us approach 
the Blessed Sacrament with more care and 
with a more lively devotion than in the past, 
and let us make great efforts to render our- 
selves worthy to receive its fruits abundantly. 

Let us take our Lord himself as our model 
for this great act. How does he prepare on 
his part to execute it ? What extraordinary 
and unprecedented things does he not do in 
order to dispose himself for visiting us in this 
august mystery, and in order to apply to us 
its fruits ? If we consider what he does out- 
side of himself we shall see him working as- 
tounding miracles, overthrowing all the laws 
of nature, operating greater prodigies in the 
destruction of the substances, in the disunion 
of the accidents, in the consecration he makes 
of them, in the strength he gives them, and 
in many other ways, than Moses ever per- 
formed in Egypt. 

If we consider what he effects in himself, we 
shall behold ravishing wonders. He places 
his body, his soul, and his divinity, the three 
most brilliant and glorious things in all the 
universe, under the species of a little host 
without brilliancy or glory ; he reduces his 



382 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

body to a point, his living and immortal body 
to a state-like death* his body visible and sen- 
sible in itself to the inability of being seen or 
perceived by any sense ; and being absolute 
Lord of the universe, and consequently per- 
fectly independent of his creatures, he wills 
nevertheless, in order to come to us in this 
sacrament, to depend on the word of a priest 
who may sometimes be his bitterest enemy ; 
and he wills to remain in this sacrament in a 
state of dependence on the accidents. 

See how our Lord disposes himself for this 
mystery, and how we also after his example 
should dispose ourselves, doing great things 
within and without us. We should never ap- 
proach it without haying first prepared by 
some signal act of virtue, without having pur- 
chased our Communion and the possession of 
the Son of God with some heroic victory over 
ourselves. 

When you have received Communion be 
very careful to render it effectual and a means 
to virtue and perfection, in this also copying 
our Lord who, after having instituted the 
Blessed Sacrament and communicated him- 
self, went to the Garden of Olives to pray, 
and thence to his passion and death. 

We have already said what is true, that one 



From Corpus Chris ti to August. 383 

of the most abundant sources of the little ben- 
efit we draw from Holy Communion is our 
negligence, after having received, in enter- 
taining our Lord, and in profiting by the 
precious moments of his visit ; for often after 
a short prayer carelessly said, or a cold and 
formal conversation with our Lord, we leave 
him, and immediately divert ourselves with 
other things. It is easy for any one willing 
to reflect ever so superficially on the nature 
of things, to understand that to proceed in 
this way will be of no profit ; if the food you 
eat does not remain some time in your stom- 
ach, and is not there converted into chyle, 
and then into blood to be distributed through 
your whole body, it is useless to you ; the 
same thing is true of the divine food of the 
Eucharist. 

Therefore apply your whole attention most 
diligently to the Blessed Sacrament after you 
have received, being persuaded that the pro- 
fit you derive will be greater or less according 
to your application ; and remembering, to in- 
cite you to closer attention, that then is the 
time of divine liberality and profusion, that it 
is then only we hold our Lord, possess him, 
and can unite ourselves in the most perfect 
manner to his sacred\humanity ; that it is then 



. 384 Union with Onr Lord in the Eucliarist 

the soul may drink from the side of our Lord, 
that she may draw from that divine fountain 
the waters of life, that she may gather abun- 
dantly the fruits of his passion and death, that 
she may sprinkle herself with his blood, that 
she may wash in it and be purified and sancti- 
fied, that she may approach that fire which 
makes seraphim on earth as well as in heaven, 
and the flames of which will enkindle in her 
heart a love that will extinguish the love of 
creatures, that she may expose herself to the 
Sun of Justice, who with his rays will illumine, 
vivify, and strengthen her, pouring upon her 
his clear light, and rendering her divine ; and 
finally, that it is then that opening her ears to 
this great and only Master she may hear in 
his secret and mystic school the sublime les- 
sons of Christian perfection which he does not 
teach to the wise of the world. 

After your conversation with our Lord, look 
to the effects. St. Augustine says : " Let him 
who receives Life," that is the Holy Eucharist, 
for so the Fathers named it, "determine to 
change his life ; for if he does not change his 
life, and correct his conduct, he receives Life 
to his condemnation, and he will grow worse 
rather than better from having received it, and 



From Corpus Christi to August. 385 

will gain death instead of life." (Aug. opp. t. 
v. App. Serm. cxv.) 

For this reason the Eucharist is also called 
the Passover, which means passage, because it 
should cause us to pass from sin to grace, 
from vice to virtue, and from faults to perfec- 
tion. 

Let the faithful soul then who receives, 
who eats the Passover, think of accomplishing 
these mystical passages, and of producing 
these changes of conduct in himself; let him 
go with our Lord to the Garden of Olives by 
prayer and recollection, and thence to the 
passion and death of his ruined nature, by the 
exercise of humility, obedience, charity, for- 
giveness of injuries, and the other virtues, in 
the highest degree of their excellence ; so 
that like Elias, a figure of this mystery, who, 
strengthened and refreshed by the bread the 
angel gave him, walked forty days and forty 
nights until he came to the high mountain of 
Horeb (3 Kings xix. 8), he, too, supported and 
strengthened by the sacred bread of the Eu- 
charist, may constantly go onward during the 
whole course of his life, by day and night, in 
light and darkness, prosperity and adversity, 
untii he reaches the mountain of perfection 
to which God calls him. 
33 



386 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

7. Good use of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

To animate ourselves to make a good use 
of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we need 
only consider its infinite excellence and the 
inestimable treasures of blessings it brings us. 

The Sacrifice of the Mass is indeed the 
grandest, the most august, and the most ven- 
erable act of our religion ; it is the sublimest 
and most exalted action that is performed in 
the universe ; it is the most glorious to God, 
the most agreeable to our Lord, to our Lady, 
and to the whole Church triumphant ; it is 
the most useful to the Church militant, and 
affords most aid and solace to the Church 
suffering ; and to each one of us individually 
it is of the greatest value for our advancement 
in virtue, and our salvation. 

The Sacrifice of the Mass contains and 
unites in itself all the sacrifices of the Old 
Law, which were but diminutive pictures and 
faint shadows of it. Thus it is a holocaust of 
infinite adoration, by which we acknowledge 
God as our first principle, the cause of our 
bodies and souls, and all that we are ; as our 
sovereign Lord who has the right to dispose 
of us as he pleases without our resisting in 
any manner whatsoever ; and as our Last 



From Corpus Chris ti to August. 3S7 

End for whom we were created, and in whose 
service we should incessantly occupy and con- 
sume ourselves. It is a sacrifice of infinite 
propitiation, by which we appease the anger 
of God irritated against us on* account of our 
offences, and obtain pardon of them. It is a 
eucharistic sacrifice, capable of rendering him 
infinite thanksgivings for all the benefits he 
has bestowed upon us, and a sacrifice of im- 
petration infinitely powerful to obtain from 
him fresh benefits. 

The Sacrifice -of the Mass is something so 
honorable and glorious to God, that a single 
Mass said by a wicked priest for infamous in- 
tentions, procures him more honor and glory 
than all the blessed will throughout eternity ; 
because all the honor they render him and 
will render him, has, and will always have, 
limits as coming from limited or finite crea- 
tures ; but the honor the Mass procures him 
is absolutely infinite, because it is Jesus Christ, 
his Son and the first priest, who offers it to 
him in person by the effective sacrifice of him- 
self, a sacrifice which is not different in essence, 
but only in some accidental formalities, from 
that of his cross and death. 

All these reasons clearly show us the great 
care we should take to make a good use of 



388 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

this adorable Sacrifice for the glory of God 
and our own salvation, offering it ourselves 
and saying Mass if we are priests, or hearing 
it, or very frequently during the day present- 
ing it in spirit to God, for the intentions for 
which it was instituted. 

We will not explain here how this should 
be done, because we have treated of the sub- 
ject in another work, to which we refer our 
present readers. (See " The Knozvledge and 
Love of our Lord Jesus Christ" B. III. c. x. 
p. 14.) 

I will only add in this place that the Mass 
being the same act which our Lord performed 
in the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament 
on the evening of his Last Supper, an act 
which contained in itself an infinity of won- 
ders, and was identical with the one he per- 
formed on the cross when he sacrificed himself 
and died for the honor of his Father and the 
salvation of men, we should unite ourselves to 
it with sentiments of extraordinary devotion. 

To say Mass wherein is contained both the 
sacrament and the sacrifice, js to do what our 
Lord did at the Last Supper and on the cross. 
To hear Mass is to do what our Lady did at 
the foot of the cross, where she shared the 
dispositions of her Son, co-operated in the 



From Corpus Christi to August. 389 

offering he made of himself to God his Father, 
and offered herself likewise to him. 

Consider when you go to Mass that you are 
going to assist at the grandest and most ad- 
mirable action that can be performed in hea- 
ven or on earth ; you are going to witness the 
execution, the murder, the putting to death 
of the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, 
and the King of kings, by representation in 
his own person ; you are going to see him die 
for your salvation and your love. Is not this 
enough to dispose you to say or hear Mass in 
a most perfect manner ? 

Therefore, in conclusion, let us attach our- 
selves with the deepest affection to the holy 
Eucharist, whether as a Sacrament or a' Sacri- 
fice. Let us'breathe our Lord and draw him 
into us in this divine mystery ; let us unite 
ourselves to him by faith, respect, and adora- 
tion, by frequent visits, by worthy sacramental 
and spiritual communions, and by all the 
means we can devise, so that in this union he 
may communicate to us according to his de- 
sires and the end for which he instituted the 
Eucharist, his divinity, his humanity, his merits, 
his graces, and his gifts, which will enable us 
to imitate his life. 



3QO Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 

Consider the excellence of a consecrated 
Host, and the perfection acquired by the acci- 
dents of the bread and wine from their being 
united to Jesus Christ in this sacrament. So 
long as they are united to bread and wine 
they are vile and abject ; their natural union 
with their own substance constitutes their 
vileness and meanness ; but by being sepa- 
rated from it and united to our Lord, they are 
ennobled, sanctified, and raised to an inesti- 
mable dignity, and to a power of producing 
marvelous effects which without this union 
they could never possess. Even such is the 
difference between a man consecrated by the 
presence of and union with Jesus Christ in 
the Blessed Sacrament, and the same man 
when he is not so consecrated. 

Finally, let us make the Blessed Sacrament 
our school, our asylum, our altar of refuge, our 
arsenal, our medicine, our banquet, our de- 
light, our happiness, our paradise, and our 
heaven on earth, that we may draw from it 
our instruction, our light, our defence, our 
strength, our health, our nourishment, and all 
that we need, inasmuch as our Lord is there 
to confer upon us all these blessings. 



From Corpus CJiristi to August. 391 

IV.— MEDITATIONS. 

What has been said may serve as subjects 
for meditation ; if it is not sufficient, there are 
several books from which you may select your 
subjects. 

V.— READING. 
Again see this heading in Chapter III. 

VI.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

M My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is 
drink indeed." (Jno. vi. 56.) 

{i He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood, abideth in me, and I in him." (Jno. vi. 
57.) He that eateth my flesh and drinketh 
mv blood dwells in me, and I in him. Is this 
so ? Can I testify this of myself with truth ? 
Do I dwell in Jesus Christ by thoughts, de- 
sires, love, and preference of him to all the 
things of earth ? And he, does he dwell in 
me, in my body to purify it, in my soul to 
sanctify it, in my understanding to enlighten 
it, in my will to quicken it, in my passions to 
rule them, in my eyes, in my ears, in my 
tongue, and in all my senses to govern their 
movements ? If I do not experience this, but 
on the contrary am sure that the case is quite 



y. 



)2 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist 



different, what is the cause ? Is Jesus Christ 
a liar, to promise a thing that is impossible ? 
Or rather do I make it impossible by the ob- 
stacles I interpose ? 

"As the living Father hath sent me, and I 
live by the Father, so he that eateth me, the 
same also shall live by me." (Jno. vi. 58.) 
As my Father has sent me and willed me to 
lead his divine life, I communicate that life to 
him that eateth me. Oh ! incomparable effect 
of the Blessed Sacrament ! He who receives 
it must lead the life of the Son of God, if the 
Son of God speaks truly. Where is that di- 
vine life I lead ? Is my life always even a 
reasonable life ? It is not often a passionate 
life, an animal life ? What then have so many 
Communions during so many years accom- 
plished in me, a single one of which, if it had 
been excellently made, might have raised me 
to the highest sanctity ? Henceforth let us 
endeavor to bring to order so great an irreg- 
ularity, and find an efficacious remedy for so 
dangerous a disease. 

"As often as you shall eat this bread, and 
drink the chalice, you shall show the death 
of the Lord until he come." (i Cor. xi. 26.) 
As often as you shall communicate you shall 
show forth the Lord's death. That is, accord- 



From Corpus Christi to August. 393 

ing to St. Thomas, you shall represent in your 
interior and exterior Jesus Christ crucified, and 
shall express in yourself by imitation the vir- 
tues he exercised in his passion and death. 

Observe that each Communion should ac- 
complish these effects in you ; and every time 
that you have communicated remember to 
say to yourself frequently during the day : 
I must to-day represent in myself the death 
of our Lord, and express in my actions his 
humility, his obedience, his patience, his meek- 
ness, his charity, and the other virtues he prac- 
ticed on the cross. 

"But let a man prove himself, and so let 
him eat of the bread and drink of the chalice ; 
for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, 
eateth and drinketh judgment to himself." 
(1 Cor. xi. 28, 29.) Let him that desires to 
approach this divine table, enter into himself, 
and examine and see if he is worthy ; if he is, 
let him eat this bread and drink this chalice ; 
if he is not, let him beware of touching it, 
otherwise he may be certain that he eats and 
drinks his judgment and condemnation, that 
instead of receiving life he will find death. 

" The Lord wakeneth me in the morning, in 
the morning he wakeneth my ear that I may 
hear him as a master ; I do not resist." (Ex. 



394 Union with Our Lord in the Eucharist. 

Is. 1. 4, 5.) Our Lord residing in the Blessed 
Sacrament awakens me early in the morning 
and seizes my ear, so that I may listen to him 
as to my master who gives me excellent les- 
sons in the practice of the virtues and in per- 
fection. I do not contradict him, I do not 
resist him, I do not refuse to believe what he 
tells me, nor to do what he teaches me. 

In conclusion, owing, as you do, a singular 
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, be careful 
to practice it especially during the entire 
octave of Corpus Christi, a season w T hen we 
should keep as much as possible in our Lord's 
company, and for long periods expose our- 
selves to the Sun of Justice to be illumined, 
and to the Divine Fire to be warmed and con- 
sumed. We should gaze in astonishment at 
a God burning with love for us upon our altars, 
w T e should thereon regard with eyes of ven- 
eration this great mystery of our faith, this 
powerful motive of our hope, this sharp sting 
of our love, this excellent pattern of all vir- 
tues, and this perfect model of all the actions 
of our lives. We should likewise do the same 
in due proportion during the other seasons of 
the year. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PRACTICE OF UNION WITH OUR LORD JESUS 
CHRIST FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST, BY 
THE VIRTUE OF FAITH. 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

Since the Holy Ghost descended upon the 
disciples on the day of Pentecost to impress 
on their hearts, and on the hearts of all men 
who should come after them, the New Law, 
the law of grace and perfection, and to make 
them true Christians ; and since faith, hope, 
and charity are the three virtues by which 
true Christians are especially made and formed, 
and which they exercise more carefully than 
all the others as being the most excellent and 
most perfect ; we have judged it useful and 
proper to adopt these virtues as the subject of 
our exercises for the remainder of the year, re- 
ferring them chiefly to the holy Eucharist in 
order not to divert ourselves from that con- 
sideration, but to ground us more and more in 
the worship of our Lord, and to unite us more 
and more closely with him in that adorable 
mystery. We will begin with Faith. 



396 Union with Our Lord for August, 

EXERCISE ON FAITH. 

Faith is the first of the three Theological 
Virtues. It enables us to believe firmly and 
with an unalterable persuasion, all the truths 
that God has revealed to us, either directly, 
or through his organs, that is, the patriarchs, 
the prophets, and the apostles of the Church. 

Faith is the foundation and the commence- 
ment, the gate-way of our salvation, the 
source of our happiness, the principle, rule, 
and measure of all our virtues ; for we will 
have as much hope, as much charity, as much 
humility, and as much patience as we shall 
have lively faith. 

Faith is the greatest ornament of our souls, 
the one that purifies and ennobles them more 
than all human sciences. It has wondrous 
eyes that do not rest on the exterior appear- 
ance of things, but penetrate their interior 
even to their depths ; that do not look upon 
the present, but the future ; that do not con- 
sider nature, but grace and glory — not time, 
but eternity. Gazing at the Eucharist they do 
not notice the color, the figure, the odor, nor 
the taste, as the senses do, but pass beyond 
and discover beneath these accidents the Son 
of God who there hides himself for us. Neither 



By the Virtue of Faith. 397 

the world and its noise, nor walls, nor doors, 
nor tabernacles, nor veils, nor ciboriums, nor 
the species, nor any other obstacle or parti- 
tion, prevent them from behglding our Lord 
in the Blessed- Sacrament ; they see him there 
as clearly and distinctly a hundred leagues off 
as at only two steps distance ; the distance of 
places does not deprive them of their vision, 
for, far more than the eyes of the lynx, they 
pierce everywhere. 

Still more, Faith has powerful arms with 
which it performs signal and heroic deeds. 
It was with these arms that the saints attacked 
and overthrew their vices, that they acquired 
virtues and exercised good works, that they 
combated and gained the victory over the 
world, the flesh, and all the enemies of their 
salvation, and that they conquered to them- 
selves the eternal kingdom. "By faith," says 
St. Paul, "they conquered kingdoms and 
wrought justice." (Hebr. xi. 33.) 

Pure, naked, and blind faith is the faith of 
great souls, which in its whole and in each of 
its parts is faith and nothing else, which seeks 
and desires no other support or reason for be- 
lieving, and believing everything no matter 
how elevated above our senses and our minds, 
than God's word alone, to which it submits 
34 



39S Union zuith Our Lord for August, 

with closed eyes. This faith is the principle, 
rule, and measure of all the other virtues, and 
its absence is the source whence flow all our 
miseries. " They believed not for his won- 
drous works, and their days were consumed 
in vanity," David said of the Israelites. (Ps. 
Ixxvii. 32.) The same may be said of Chris- 
tians, because they have not firmly believed 
the wonders he has worked in their favor, nor 
given credence to his truths ; they have spent 
their days in vanities, and have consumed 
their lives in follies and in all sorts of vices. 

The exercise, then, of this month will be to 
make earnest acts of this virtue in reference 
to the principal doctrines of our religion, and 
particularly in reference to the doctrine of the 
Eucharist. 

These principal doctrines are contained in 
'the Apostles' Creed, and to them must be 
added the doctrine of the presence of God 
everywhere, both without us and within us, 
i:his doctrine being the broadest and most 
universal principle of the spiritual life, serving 
as a foundation for all the actions of the pur- 
gative, the illuminative, and the unitive states ; 
that of the existence of God and of our 
nothingness, which is the root of Christian 
humility ; that of God's providence over us, 



By the Virtue of Faith. 399 

which is the source of all the true joy we can 
possess in this life ; and others that we have 
indicated in those places where we have 
spoken of this virtue. 

But the chief object of these acts will be the 
most holy sacrament of the altar, which among 
all our mysteries is pre-eminently called mys- 
terium jidei,— the mystery of faith, because it 
exacts of us a very great submission of intel- 
lect and demands that we renounce in the 
most absolute manner all our natural, as w T ell 
as all our acquired knowledge, and all our ex- 
perience, and that w r e close the eyes and ears 
of our senses so as neither to see nor hear the 
judgments they would form if left to them- 
selves. 

The truths of our religion are all equally 
certain, but they are not all equally easy to be 
understood. There are some that are clear, 
the comprehension of which is not beyond the 
capacity of our minds ; for example, the exis- 
tence of a God who created the universe, that 
there is but one God, and that he is good, wise, 
powerful, and just. There are other truths 
that have been made visible, palpable, that 
have fallen under the senses of men ; such are 
the mystery of our Lord's humanity, his birth, 
his circumcision, his miracles, his preaching, 



400 Union zvith Our Lord for August y 

his life, death, ascension, and the descent of 
the Holy Ghost. Others, again, are obscure 
and elevated far above and beyond the power 
of our understanding and of our senses ; such 
as the unity of one God in three equal persons, 
and the incarnation of the Word ; still, these 
are not directly opposed to our understanding, 
and the Doctors of the Church teach that 
among natural phenomena there are things 
analagous to these truths which by certain 
traits of resemblance facilitate our belief in 
them. 

But of all our mysteries the most obscure, 
the one that is shrouded in the thickest dark- 
ness, is the mystery of the Eucharist ; for it is 
not only above our minds and senses, but is 
seemingly, against them, inasmuch as it pro- 
poses to us a transubstantiation, the change 
of one entire composite body into another ; a 
body existing in several places at the same 
time ; a body deprived of exterior extension, 
but preserving each member in its natural 
place ; a body reduced to a point ; a body en- 
tire in the whole and entire in each part of the 
host, after the manner of spirits ; a body sen- 
sible and palpable in itself, yet present insen- 
sibly and impalpably ; a body having eyes 



By the Virtue of Faith. 401 

without sight," ears without hearing, a tongue 
without speech, and accidents without, their 
substance yet producing the effects of it. 

These are wonders that astonish us, over- 
throw all our scientific theories, and set at 
naught all the evidences of our senses. If we 
consult our sciences, if we ask our senses, their 
judgment of a consecrated Host, whether they 
consider that an entire man is contained in it. 
they will reply that it is folly to think of such 
a thing, that the body of a man is not so 
formed and cannot be enclosed in such narrow 
limits ; that certainly and evidently it is only 
bread, and that the color, odor, and taste 
show this beyond a doubt. 

It is, then, chiefly in this adorable mystery 
that faith wins her greatest victories over our 
judgment and our senses ; it is here she tri- 
umphs with most glory and erects her most 
magnificent trophies. 

The beloved disciple tells us : "This is the 
victory which overcometh the world, our 
faith." (1 Jno. v. 4.) Faith is the glorious 
conqueror of the world and of the human 
intellect. 

The pious and learned William, Bishop of 
Paris, supposes Faith to say in this connection :. 
* This is an opiuion. — Vide Franzelin de Euch. 



402 Union with Our Lord for August 9 

14 Whose eloquence will be adequate to praise 
me according to my merit ? Who can repeat 
the signal victories I gain, especially in the 
Holy Sacrament of the altar ? There I sur- 
mount so powerfully, and with a single blow, 
the five senses, and with so great authority 
keep them beneath me that they dare not 
even breathe against the truth of this mys- 
tery ; there I reduce so low the loftiest human 
intelligence, and trample so deep in the earth 
all the science and reasoning of nature, that 
they know not where they are, and I hold 
them for my enemies as declared and ready 
to do me evil as Satan is, if they be not con- 
quered and ranged under my obedience." 
(William of Paris, L. de morib. c. I.) 

The ancient representation of Faith was 
very appropriate. It was pictured as a virgin 
beautiful as the day, holding in her hand a 
chalice with a Host, having at her feet 
prostrate and loaded with chains a great 
captain who bore upon his brow, pride and 
insolence — that is, the human mind ; around 
her lay soldiers stiff in death — that is, the 
senses ; below was the motto : Mystcrimn 
fidei — the mystery of faith. 

Verily, when we enter the presence of the 
Blessed Sacrament, when we gaze at it, and 



By the Virtue of Faith. 403 

when we offer it our homage, we should recall 
this picture ; we should see at one side Faith 
in this guise and with these marks of her 
power, and on the other behold her disdain- 
fully trampling under foot the presumption of 
our intellect and the rashness of our senses ; 
then, with closed eyes, with most profound 
respect, with deep humility, with perfect sub- 
mission, and pure faith, we should adore the 
Mystery on the altar ; and afterward, in the 
same sentiments, proceed to the following 
practice. 

II.— PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

This practice contains five points : 

1. To believe all the truths of the Christian 
religion, and particularly those we have in- 
dicated. 

2. To believe them with incomparably more 
firmness than we do the evident truths of 
nature. 

3. To protest that we wil} die in a pure, 
naked, and blind faith in these truths. 

4. And this even were the whole world to 
deny or doubt them. 

5. So to believe in spite of whatever may 
befall us in consequence of our faith. 

Thus : I believe all the truths of our holy 



404 Union with Our Lord for August, 

religion ; I believe in the Trinity, the Incar- 
nation, the omnipresence of God, his provi- 
dence in my regard ; and especially in the 
most holy and most adorable mystery of the 
Eucharist, and I believe in it most firmly with- 
out a doubt, and most simply without an ex- 
amination, and with a pure, naked, and blind 
faith, precisely because God has declared it. 

Yes, I believe, and I hold for truth this 
mystery, with greater firmness of mind and 
more perfect repose of soul than I believe and 
hold for truth what I see with my eyes, what 
I touch with my hands, than I believe that the 
sun shines at midday, or that I am alive ; I 
believe it above all natural reasons, above all 
evident demonstrations, all the infallible ex- 
periences of the senses, all supernatural visions, 
and all the other knowledge we can possess 
in this life, the revelation of God alone taking 
for me the place, and performing the office of 
reason, demonstration, experience, vision, and 
every such thing, being without comparison 
more than these. 

I desire to live and die in this pure, naked, 
and blind faith in the truth of this mystery ; 
and I declare now, for the present, and for all 
the future, before God, before the angels, be- 
fore men, and before all creatures, my above 



By the Virtue of Faith. 405 

said will and desire. I renounce all contrary 
thoughts I may have, I disavow all contrary 
words I may say, at whatever time, in what- 
ever place, and upon whatever occasion, pro- 
testing that they are not in accordance with 
my belief and my intention. 

And when all men, and even all angels, if so 
might be, shall deny this truth, or doubt it ; 
when they shall deny and doubt it as much as 
they wish, as for me, I am irrevocably resolved 
to live and die in its profession, and I desire 
no other eucharist, no other sacrifice, no other 
salvation than what I believe to be in it. 

And when, in consequence of my so believ- 
ing this truth, there shall arise some peril for 
my honor, or my goods, or my life, or my 
eternal salvation, I am determined to submit 
to it willingly. 

If necessary, I desire to be lost in this belief; 
but I know it cannot be my loss ; that on the 
contrary it will save me. 

Let us apply these five points to the other 
mysteries, and thus establish ourselves firmly 
in faith in their truth ; let us accustom our- 
selves to see things, not with the eyes of the 
flesh, nor of the natural reason, but with the 
eyes of faith, and to perform our actions under 
its motives and principles. 



405 Union with Our Lord for August, 

Take care that your faith be not an animal 
faith, as Tertullian calls it (L. de jejun. c. i. 3), 
that leans greatly upon the senses, and is a 
very mixed faith, but seek to have it a pure 
and naked faith ; let it be not only habitual, 
as in the greater part of Christians, but actual 
and practical ; not sterile, but efficacious and 
operative to produce good works, according 
to the manner in which they should be wrought 
so as to prove useful for our salvation. 

III.— MEDITATIONS. 

The author recommends two meditations on 
Faith, which are to be found in the work en- 
titled " The Illuminative Life of Jesus in the 
Desert!' 

IV.— READING. 

See this heading in Chapter III. 

V.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

" My just man liveth by faith." (Heb. x. 38.) 
God says : He who is just before me lives and 
is nourished by faith. 

"I am the resurrection and the life. Be- 
lievest thou this?" (Jno. xi. 25.) Our Lord 
said to St. Martha : I am the resurrection and 



By the Virtue of Faith. 407 

the life. Believest thou this ? And she re- 
plied : " Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou 
art Christ, the Son of the living God." (lb. 
xi. 27.) Yes, Lord, I believe that thou art the 
Messiah and the Son of the living God. 

We ought to represent to ourselves that 
our Lord addresses us the same question re- 
garding the same mystery, also regarding the 
mystery of the Eucharist, and the other mys- 
teries, and that we make the same reply: 
"Yes, Lord, I believe." 

"Lord, increase our faith." (Luke xvii. 5.) 
Lord, increase faith within us, grant that we 
may have a firm, simple, pure and naked faith, 
that we may look at things with its eyes, and 
perform our works with its hands. Amen. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PRACTICE OF UNION WITH OUR LORD JESUS 
CHRIST FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER, 
BY THE VIRTUE OF HOPE. 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

Hope is the Second Theological Virtue. It 
causes us to hope to receive from God all 
temporal and eternal blessings, all corporal 
and spiritual blessings, the blessings of nature, 
grace, and glory. It causes us to hope for 
them, because he being omnipotent is able to 
give them to us ; because being perfectly good 
and goodness itself, he has an extreme incli- 
nation to give them to us ; because he is 
infinitely liberal and munificent ; and finally, 
by reason of the deference he renders to the 
life and death of his Son, our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and because he has promised to give 
them to us for the sake of his Son. 

Hope is our balm, our cordial, and our con- 
solation in all the sufferings of this life ; it is 
a virtue that has powerful attractions and 
ravishing charms to win us to its love, and 
to inspire us with an ardent desire to exercise 
its acts. 



By the Virtue of Hope. 409 

Pure, naked, and blind hope is the hope of 
great souls, the hope that remains unshaken 
amid difficulties like a rock in the ocean amid 
storms ; it hopes in the midst of despair and 
the absence of all human aid, and it rises up 
to God in proportion as it sees itself cast down 
among creatures ; by a wise and fortunate 
blindness it shuts its eyes to men, so as not to 
see their weaknesses nor the strength of its 
adversaries, and opens them only to look at 
the power, goodness, and faithfulness of God, 
and the merit of the blood of his Son ; finally, 
in its whole, and in each of its parts, it is hope 
only in God, and in no other. 

We should exert all our efforts to rise to 
this pure and perfect hope. 

Truly, the sight of what God does for the 
insects and the worms of the earth, the care he 
takes to preserve them and provide for their 
necessities should strongly move us to believe, 
if we have not lost our reason, that he will 
provide for our wants, and w r ill watch over us 
who are his images and the master-pieces of 
his hand. Considering how he has made for 
our use the sun, the moon and the stars, the 
elements, the animals, and all visible things ; 
how he has given us his angels to guide, as- 
sist, and defend us ; how he has given us his 
35 



410 Union with Our Lord for September, 

own Son to take our nature, to assume our 
miseries, to teach us by his example and 
words, to wash away our sins with his blood, 
to gain life for us by his death, and to make 
us eternally happy, considering all this that 
God has done for us, we ought to confide and 
trust in him. 

But, added to all this, what takes place in 
the most holy Eucharist is a lively incentive 
to our perfect and entire confidence, because 
our Lord there gives us assurances and tokens 
of all the blessings he can impart to us, of all 
that we can ask him, and of all we can need. 

1. Our Lord gives himself to us in this ador- 
able mystery under the species of bread and 
wine. 

2. He comes to us destroying substances, 
strengthening the feebleness of accidents, dis- 
uniting things naturally united, and over- 
throwing the laws of nature. 

3. He comes exercising humility, patience, 
obedience, charity, and other virtues in a high 
and eminent degree. 

4. He comes to unite himself to us in the 
manner of food which is the most intimate 
union to be found in nature. 

5. He comes, not passible and mortal, but 
in a state far removed from the attacks of suf- 



By the Virtue of Hope. 411 

fering and the power of death, and with a 
a blessed soul and a glorious body. 

We need physical and spiritual blessings, 
temporal and eternal blessings, the blessings 
of nature, grace and glory. Our Lord gives 
them to us in the Blessed Sacrament, and 
consequently gives us reason to ask them of 
him, and a certain hope of obtaining them 
from him in this adorable mystery. 

First, physical blessings the most neces- 
sary of which are food and drink ; he furnishes 
us these by putting himself under the species 
of bread and wine, which are the principal ali- 
ments of our bodies. 

Secondly, as to spiritual blessings, the state 
of grace and perfection consists in three things: 
The first is the reformation of our nature 
spoiled by sin, the eradication of our vicious 
inclinations and our bad habits, which is the 
labor of the purgative life ; the second is the 
practice of virtues, which is the employment 
of the illuminative life ; and the third is our 
union with our Lord, and through him with 
God, which is the occupation of the unitive 
life. 

Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament does 
these things in an admirable manner most 
worthy of our meditation. 



412 Union with Our Lord for September, 

First : he destroys the substances of the 
bread and wine ; he separates and disunites 
things naturally united, that is, the substance 
and the accidents ; he strengthens the weak- 
ness of the accidents so that they exist with- 
out support ; he overthrows the laws of 
nature. 

Secondly: he exercises in a most high and 
eminent manner humility, obedience, patience, 
and the other virtues, in order to give us ex- 
amples, and at the same time communicate to 
us grace to imitate them. Besides, he raises 
the accidents above themselves so that they 
produce the effects of their substances and 
thus far surpass their own power. 

Thirdly : he unites himself for love of us to 
the accidents of the bread and wine, which are 
very mean things ; he unites himself to us, to 
our bodies and souls, whence the Blessed 
Sacrament is called Communion ; and he 
unites himself to us in the quality of food, 
which forms with the one who receives it the 
most intimate and perfect of all natural 
unions, because after a very little time it 
passes from union to unity. 

Finally, with regard to the state of glory" 
and eternal recompense, the Eucharist is 
called by the Fathers the seed of immortality 



By the Virtue of Hope, 413 

and a blessed resurrection ; our Lord comes 
to us in it, not passible and mortal, but m a 
state incapable of suffering" and death, and 
with his divinity and his blessed humanity 
which are to constitute the beatitude of our 
souls and bodies. 

The Son of God. then, coming to us in such 
a manner in the most holy Eucharist, invites 
and even forces us to ask him with unshaken 
confidence for all these blessings, and to hope 
for them from his bounty ; to hope that he 
will give us bread and wine, that is, nourish- 
ment for our bodies and all that is necessary 
for our life ; that he will give us courage to 
destroy our vicious inclinations, to conquer 
our passions, to detach and disunite ourselves 
from creatures that captivate us, to rise above 
our nature in order to practice virtues excel- 
lently, to unite ourselves with him, and at last 
to see him and possess him eternally in the 
state of glory. 

Therefore, if the holy Eucharist is called 
the mystery of our faith, it deserves most 
justly to be also called the mystery of our 
hope, and the sacrament of our sweetest ex- 
pectations. Truly, when we see our Lord 
coming to us from heaven to earth with such 
a disposition to give, we ought to go to him 



4 H Union with Our Lord for September, 

to ask with hope, and to confess that if after 
this we are still needy and miserable, it is not 
his fault, but ours. 

Consider again with what liberality and 
profusion he gives himself to us. He gives 
himself entirely ; he gives us his divinity, his 
soul, his body. Does not oiiq who gives an 
object of an absolutely infinite value as 
security for a promise of a few cents, furnish 
great reason to hope, and an infallible cer- 
tainty of obtaining from him the few cents ? 
We, relying upon the token our Lord gives 
us, have much greater reason U> hope to re- 
ceive from him all that is necessary for our 
bodies and souls. 

St. Thomas admiring God's liberality in this 
mystery, says : " God gave man heaven and 
earth, and this was the first degree of his 
bounty ; he destined his angels to instruct 
and defend us, this was the second degree ; 
and the third is that he has given us himself, 
and in several manners ; for he has given him- 
self to accompany us in our pilgrimage, to 
assist us in our necessities, and to make of his 
blood the price of our ransom. But the high- 
est degree of his liberality and magnificence 
is that he has given himself to us to be our 
food. The other gifts are somewhat apart 



By the Virtue of Hope. 415 

from himself; this one is not, but produces an 
intimate and inseparable union between him 
and the receiver ; whence our Lord says : 
41 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood 
dwells in me, and I dwell in him." (Opusc. 
58, c. 5 ) Having before us, by day and night 
and in so many churches, so great and ad- 
mirable a reason for perfect hope in our Lord 
in all our necessities, " let us hold fast the 
confession of our hope without wavering," as 
St. Paul says. (Heb. x. 23.) Let us strengthen 
ourselves in an unshaken hope. " And hope 
confoundeth not," says the same apostle. 
(Rom. v. 5.) A hope so well founded, estab- 
lished upon such strong reasons, and supported 
by such excellent pledges of our Lord's exces- 
sive love for us, cannot deceive us. 

This is why St. Paul also says : " Let us go 
therefore with confidence to the throne of 
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find 
grace in seasonable aid." (Heb. iv. 16.) Let 
us go with great confidence to our Lord in the 
Blessed Sacrament where he is as on the 
throne of his grace and liberality, to obtain 
mercy and a remedy for all our evils. 

When you are afflicted, discomforted, or 
pained (this is a very good counsel), go for 
your consolation, not to creatures who fre- 



41 6 Union with Our Lord for September, 

quently instead of curing your disease will 
make it worse, and in place of pouring, like 
the pious Samaritan (Luke x. 34), oil and wine 
upon your wound to heal it, will touch it with 
fire to inflame it, but go straight, and with faith 
and confidence, to the Blessed Sacrament, as 
to your asylum and your altar of refuge. 

Expose your affliction and pain to our Lord, 
and supplicate him to help you ; and be cer- 
tain that you will never come away from this 
visit without fruit, and that you will always 
find in some way in the Blessed Sacraroent 
light for your doubts, strength for your weak- 
nesses, consolation for your sorrows, and assist- 
ance for all your needs, inasmuch as our Lord 
is there on purpose to help you, and to pro- 
duce in you these effects. The prophet Isaiah, 
speaking figuratively, says : "There shall be 
a tabernacle for a shade in the day-time from 
the heat, and for a security and covert from 
the whirlwind, and from rain." (Is. iv. 6.) The 
tabernacle where our Lord dwells shall serve 
you as a shade from the fierceness of the sun, 
and as a shelter from the whirlwind and the 
rain, and from all sorts of storms. I 

Let us then hope strongly in God, and let us 
put all our confidence in him. " Hope in the 
Lord God mighty forever," the same prophet 



By the Virtue of Hope. 417 

bids us. (Is. xxvi. 4.) Hope steadfastly in 
the Lord, who is strong and all-powerful. 

Let us not hope in creatures, but in our 
Lord. " I have learned in the Catholic Church, 
before all things," says St. Augustine, "not to 
put my hope in any man ; for I hear God tell- 
ing us by Jeremiah : ' Cursed be the man that 
trusteth in man.'" (Jer. xvii. 5.) William of 
Paris says : " He who leans upon man, leans 
upon a reed which, incapable of supporting 
him, breaks beneath his weight and wounds 
his hand." (William of Paris, L. de morib. c. 3.) 
The pious bishop borrowed this simile from 
the prophet Ezechiel, who says of Egypt : 
i4 Behold thou hast been a staff of a reed to 
the house of Israel. When they took hold of 
thee with the hand thou didst break and rend 
all their shoulder." (Ezech. xxix. 6, 7.) Isa- 
iah, also speaking, of Egypt, had already ex- 
pressed the same thought : " Lo ! thou trustest 
upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt, 
upon which if a man lean it will go into his hand 
and pierce it ; so is Pharao, king of Egypt, to 
all that trust in him." (Is. xxxvi. 6.) 

God tells us and repeats it many times, he 
invites and solicits us with most pressing 
words, to lean upon him and to establish in 
him our hope. Do we believe that he speaks 



41 8 Union with Our Lord for September \ 

thus for nothing ? St. Augustine asks wisely, 
and after him William of Paris, if we can en- 
tertain the wicked thought that if, encouraged 
by God's words, we should lean upon him, he 
would be so cruel and deceitful, he who is 
goodness and truth itself, as to withdraw and 
let us fall ? (Will, of Paris, lee. cit) 

Therefore, convinced and persuaded by these 
reasons, let us lean boldly upon him, and let 
us fearlessly place in him our hope for the re- 
lief of all our necessities, and let us proceed to 
the practice. 

II.— THE PRACTICE. 

Like the Practice of Faith, it should con- 
sist in the following five points : 

I hope my God and my Saviour, from thy 
goodness, thy liberality, thy mercy, thy in- 
violable fidelity to thy promises, from thy 
power, and especially from seeing thee as I 
do in the adorable mystery of the Eucharist, 
that thou wilt deliver me from all evils, and 
wilt load me with blessings. I hope that thou 
wilt give me my food, and as many temporal 
blessings as I need for my salvation. I hope 
that thou wilt assist me with thy grace to 
avoid sin, to withstand temptations, to con- 
quer my passions, to correct my bad inclina- 



By the Virtue of Hope, 419 

tions, and to. destroy my corrupt nature. I 
hope that thou wilt strengthen my weakness, 
and enable me 'to exercise the virtues to per- 
fection and unite myself to thee ; and that at 
last thou wilt open to me the gates of heaven, 
and permit me to enjoy the eternal beatitude 
of my body and soul. 

Beholding thee in that Host, upon that 
throne of goodness, liberality, and love, I hope 
all these blessings from thee above all the 
hope that can be placed in kings, in rich and 
generous men, in kindred, in most intimate 
friends, even for the least things. 

I desire to live and die in this lofty confi- 
dence, and in this unshaken hope for which in 
the Blessed Sacrament thou dost give me so 
much reason. 

And when all men shall distrust thee, and 
esteem that thou wilt not, or that thou canst 
not assist and defend them, the sight of what 
thou art, and of what thou dost for me m the 
Blessed Sacrament, shall always constantly 
strengthen me in this hope. 

And though even this hope should delay to 
be fulfilled by my deliverance from my evils, 
and I should be left to stagnate in my afflic- 
tions and to be miserable in this world and in 
the next, thou, nevertheless, wouldst always 



420 Union with Our Lord for September. 

be through all, and in spite of all opposition, 
my refuge and my support. 

III.— MEDITATIONS. 

Father Saint-Jure under this heading again 
recommends, in addition to the matter of this 
chapter, the work entitled "The Illuminative 
Life of Jesus in the Desert." 

IV.— READING. 
See this heading in Chapter III. 

V.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

" Offer up the sacrifice of justice, and trust 
in the Lord."* (Ps. iv. 6.) Offer to God the 
sacrifice of justice and hope in the Lord ; sup- 
ported by the sacrifice and sacrament of his 
body and blood, trust in him. 

" Thou, O Lord, art my hope. 1 ' (Ps. xc. 9.) 
Beholding, my Lord, how thou abidest for me 
in this divine mystery, and what thou doest 
in it for my salvation, thou art my hope. 

"Yes, thou art truly all my hope and all 
my confidence. 1 ' (St. August. Manual, cap. 12.) 

"Thou hast prepared a table before me, 
against them that afflict me." (Is. xxii. 5.) 
Thou hast placed before me a table spread 
with an admirable and divine food, to strength- 
en me against all that afflict me. 



CHAPTER X. 

PRACTICE OF UNION WITH OUR LORD JESUS 
CHRIST FOR THE MONTHS OF OCTOBER 
AND NOVEMBER UNTIL ADVENT, BY THE 
VIRTUE OF CHARITY. 

I.— THE SUBJECT. 

We will conclude the exercises of the year 
by one on Charity, which is likewise the con- 
clusion of the commandments of God, and as 
St. Paul says, the queen of virtues, in the 
practice and perfection of which consists the 
height of the perfection we can acquire in this 
life. 

This most noble and divine virtue, the third 
and the most perfect of the theological vir- 
tues, has for its object and effect to love God, 
and to love ourselves, our neighbor, and all 
that is outside of God, solely for the love of 
God. 

William of Paris says that this most excel- 
lent virtue is called Charity because it renders 
God very dear to us, and that without it he 
is very vile to us since we account him less 
than a miserable creature, a vain honor, the 
gain of a few pennies, or a beastly pleasure. 
36 



422 Union ivitJi Our Lord until Advent, 

It is pure and bears this name of charity 
when it is unmixed with any other love ; it is 
naked when it is not covered with any strange 
affection ; it is simple when it is not divided 
between two objects and does not make pre- 
tence of loving" God while it really loves 
another; finally, it is blind when it shuts its' 
eyes to all difficulties, when it considers no 
trouble and has regard to nothing whatsoever 
when there is question of loving God and 
giving him proofs of love. 

It is contained in the first commandment 
of the Old and the New Law : Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, 
and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole 
mind, and with all thy strength ; that is, with 
all thy will, with all thy affections, with all 
thy mind and all thy thoughts, with all thy 
soul and all thy passions, and with all thy 
interior and exterior faculties ; and thou shalt 
love him in this manner because he is thy God 
who merits it of himself alone, and because 
he is thy Lord who is most worthy of it on 
account of what he is to thee. These are 
the motives of this love. 

Truly it is a fearful thing for us to love God 
so little when we have so much reason to love 
him. 



By the Virtue of Cliarity. 423 

He merits our love because as God he is 
infinitely perfect and consequently infinitely 
amiable; and as man, the Incarnate Word, 
he is sovereignly worthy of it on account of 
the sovereign perfections of his sacred body 
and his most holy soul which are incompara- 
bly beyond all that is, or ever will be, beautiful 
and attractive among creatures. 

He has made the heavens, the earth, and 
the whole visible universe for us. 

He clothed himself with our nature, he lived 
thirty-three years amid all kinds of poverty 
and misery, and then died in an excess of 
suffering and opprobrium on a cross for our 
salvation. 

He has heaped upon us the riches of grace, 
and he is preparing for us those of glory. 

He has created us, he preserves us, he 
nourishes us, and keeps us in the w T orld only 
to love him. The commandment he has given 
us to love him with all our heart and all our 
strength is the first, the most important, and 
the most imperative of all his commandments. 
He promises us a thousand blessings if we ob- 
serve it, and he threatens us with a thousand 
evils, both in this life and in the next, if we 
disobey it. 

In addition, we cannot live without loving 



424 Union zvith Our Lord until Advent, 

something ; and what do we desire, or what 
can we love more amiable than he ? Whose 
love will procure us more honor, more profit, 
and more satisfaction than his ? 

All these reasons show us the extreme and 
indispensable obligations we are under to love 
God with all our heart, and therefore are very 
capable of kindling in us the fire of charity. 
But, besides these, I find that the holy Eu- 
charist possesses a most particular and most 
powerful virtue to produce this effect. 

St. Ambrose, speaking of the Theological 
Virtues, says that our Lord is our faith in 
baptism, our hope in the resurrection, and our 
charity in the Blessed Sacrament. (L. 3. de 
Virgin.) The angelical Doctor, St. Thomas, 
relates that this sacrament is sometimes called 
Sacr amentum charitatis — the sacrament of 
love (Opuse. 58 ; c. 3) ; and before him, St. 
Bernard all dazzled by its light and burning 
with its flames, said : " Think you that you 
are able to esteem worthily enough, what, 
and how great is this Holy of holies, this 
Sacrament of sacraments, this Love of loves, 
and this Sweetness that contains all sweets ?" 
(Serm. id. caena. Dom.) 

And St. Ephrem earlier than either calls it 
fire, which has always been considered the 






By the Virtue of Charity. 425 

symbol of love ; this is how he speaks : 
41 Truly, what God's only Son, our Saviour, 
has done for us, is above all our admiration, all 
our thoughts, and all our words. He has 
given us for food and drink, fire and a spirit, 
that is to say, his body and his blood." (De 
Nat. Dei non curiose scrut.) He calls this 
sacrament fire and a spirit because it is not a 
material, but a spiritual fire. St. Chrysostom 
also gives it the same name (Horn. 6 in Matth.) ; 
and several other writers explain in this sense 
these words of Leviticus : " The fire on the 
altar shall always burn." (Levit. vi. 12. cf. 
Lorin. Ibid.) Fire, that is the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, shall always burn upon my altar. 

' The Council of Trent utters these beautiful 
and remarkable words in reference to our sub- 
ject : 4t Our Saviour being about to depart 
and return to his Father, instituted this sacra- 
ment, w r herein he has manifested to men the 
extreme affection he bears them, and has, as 
it were, poured upon them the treasures of his 
love, making this mystery the abridgment of 
his wonders." (Sess. xiii. c. 2.) 

Likewise St. John, speaking of its'institution, 
says : i4 Jesus knowing that his hour was come 
that he should pass out of this world to the 
Father, having loved his own who were in the 



426 Union with Onr Lord until Advent, 

world, he loved them unto the end " (Jno. 
xiii. 1), giving them his body and his blood 
for their food. Now let us see how this love 
has been manifested. 

Love has this characteristic, namely, to 
seek and procure by all possible means the 
union of the lover with the beloved ; it has a 
uniting power, says St. Denis (L. de divin. 
nomin. c. 3); it causes the lover to give gene- 
rously and profusely all he can to the beloved ; 
it surmounts all obstacles that maybe opposed 
to its designs, and it desires with unspeakable 
earnestness their execution and spares nothing 
to accomplish it. Our Lord has done all this 
in the Blessed Sacrament in an admirable 
manner that delights the angels and ought to 
delight men. 

Our Lord, urged by his infinite love for man, 
united himself to him in the two most inti- 
mate and perfect of all ways : First, by uniting 
his person with an individual humanity in the 
mystery of the Incarnation, wherein human 
nature was elevated in that humanity, and 
consequently all of us in a certain manner, to 
the divine nature and to all its infinite perfec- 
tions ; Secondly, as only that single humanity 
could be united to him in that mystery, and 
nevertheless he desired to unite himself with 



By the Virtue of Charity. 427 

all men individually, he found out an expedient 
truly admirable, an invention that surprises 
and astonishes all minds, that is, the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

He unites himself intimately with all men 
as far as is possible ; he unites himself as food, 
which forms with the one who receives it, as 
we have said, the closest, most inseparable, 
and most perfect of all natural unions ; he 
unites himself daily, and in some manner as 
many times as there are atoms in the host to 
contain him entire, because he is, like our 
souls in our bodies, entire in the whole host, 
and in each of its parts ; by this union he 
gives himself to us, he gives us his body, his 
soul, his divinity, his virtues, the labors of his 
life, the fruits of his death, and all his posses- 
sions ; l and by means of that multitude of 
presences in the host, as we have remarked, 
he unites and gives himself with all his pos- 
sessions to us as many times as he is present 
in the host. So great is his desire to unite 
himself to us, to apply to us his merits, to 
communicate to us his virtues, to bestow 
upon us his blessings, and to render us hence- 
forth as happy as he is able to do ! Our Lord 
knows that our happiness in this life and in 
the next consists in our union with God, and 



428 Union ivith Our Lord until Advent, 

in our possessing him, and that it is certain 
that, no matter what God gives us, even 
though he should give us millions of worlds, 
we will not be happy unless he gives us him- 
self, because he is our end and consequently 
our beatitude ; so the extreme love he bears 
us, infinitely ingenious, prompted him to in- 
vent this wonderful means by which he unites 
us to his humanity, and through his humanity 
to his divinity ; and thus he makes us happy, 
and gives us possession of the paradise we 
may enjoy on earth, and prepares us for that 
which awaits us in heaven. 

Although our Lord is now impassible and 
immortal, he nevertheless places himself in 
the host as though he still suffered, and he is 
there as if dead, since, by the power of the 
words of consecration, his blood would be, if 
it were possible, separated from his body to 
teach us the excess of his love. It is as though 
he said to us : I have for thy sake endured 
the agonies of my passion, and have suffered 
the most ignominious death that ever was ; 
I desire to apply to thee unceasingly the value 
of my blood and the merit of my death ; and 
if it w 7 ere necessary for thy salvation that I 
should die again, thou mayest judge by the 
state in which thou seest me, and by the love 



By the Virtue of Charity. 429 

I testify toward thee, that 1 am ready to die 
again once, and a thousand times, and that I 
would do it." 

What appears most admirable in this mys- 
tery, is our Lord's burning desire to institute 
this divine sacrament, in order to be able to 
unite himself to us, to give himself to us, and 
to enrich us with his blessings. 

Urged by this desire he said, before estab- 
lishing it : " With desire I have desired to eat 
this pasch with you before I suffer." (Luke " 
xxii. 15.) I have ardently desired to eat this 
pasch with you before I suffer death. Our de- 
sire of a thing is an evident and positive sign 
of our affection for it ; we do not desire things 
that are indifferent to us, but those we hold 
dear. Our Lord says that he burned with the 
desire to eat this pasch, because he was ex- 
tremely anxious to unite and give himself to 
us. 

All that we have said above proves clearly 
the vehemence of this desire. But in addition 
to all that, is it not to desire with incredible 
ardor, to come whence he comes, and in the 
manner he comes, and to do what he does 
that he may come and unite himself to us ? 

He comes from the highest heaven, which is 
almost infinitely remote from the earth. 



430 Union ivith 0?cr Lord until Advent, 

He comes in an instant, so anxious is he to 
come to us, and to come immediately. 

If we should see some great personage, some 
very wise man, some one filling the most ex- 
alted position, a powerful, prudent, and aged 
monarch, running with all his might through 
the streets, what would we think ? What would 
we say ? We would say that he had either 
lost his senses, or was possessed w r ith an inex- 
plicable desire for the thing after which he 
w r as running. It is a far greater wonder to see 
the Son of God coming so quickly. 

But the prodigies he performs in himself and 
outside of himself, in order that he may come 
and be united with us, make clearer than the 
day his violent desire of this union. He puts 
himself at the same time in heaven and on 
earth ; he puts himself in two places and in 
an innumerable number of places, since he is 
in as many places as there are consecrated 
hosts in the whole Church ; he contracts him- 
self and makes himself so little that he is 
reduced to a point ; he deprives himself of 
the use of his senses ; he abases his majesty, 
he covers his glory with a vile exterior ; he 
unites himself to the accidents ; he disguises 
himself, and in such a manner that neither the 
most ingenious poets, nor the most impas- 



By the Vii'tue of Charir 431 

sioned hearts have ever invented any artifice, 
subtlety, any transformation or rcifcta- 
morphose that resembles it. In addition, he 
exposes himself to a thousand insults, and he 
resolves to endure them for the gratification 
of his desire ; and for the same purpose he 
subjects himself to the word of a priest, who 
may sometimes be his mortal enemy. 

Outside of himself he overthrows the laws 
of nature, destroying the substances, sustain- 
ing the accidents without their natural sup- 
port, and giving them strength to do the work 
of their substance. 

Behold whence our Lord comes, how he 
comes, and what he does, in order to unite 
himself to us ! And behold how he puts him- 
self in the host, and how he remains in the 
tabernacles often for whole days and nights 
quite alone, waiting with invincible patience 
for persons to come to visit him, to come to 
speak to him, and to prepare themselves so 
that he may unite himself with them, may : 
himself to them, and do them good ; for this 
hat he desires ardently, since he does nor 
come so iar, nor so quickly, nor with so many 
wonders, not to continue the ardor of his 
desire ! Oh ! what a desire ! Oh ! what 

: ! 



432 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

II.— THE AFFECTIONS. 

If our Lord so ardently desires to come to 
us, it is certainly most just that we should 
desire to go to him. If he says to us : ik I 
have earnestly desired to eat this pasch with 
you ; " we, in view of the infinite inequality 
of dignity and perfections between him and 
us, have far greater reason to say to him : 
''With desire I have desired to eat it with 
thee." For what does he gain by it ? What 
advantage does light receive from communi- 
cating itself to darkness ? Wealth from giv- 
ing itself to poverty? Beauty from uniting 
itself to ugliness ? Purity to corruption ? Wis- 
dom to folly ? — which means, our Lord to us. 
Are not all the gain and glory ours ? 

If, then, being what he is, he desires and 
seeks with such burning affection to come to 
us, with what affection and what transports 
ought not we, being what we are, to desire to 
go to him ? St. Chrysostom says, speaking of 
this : " Do you not see how eagerly babes 
bound into their mothers' arms and take the 
breast ? We should do the same with re- 
gard to the Holy Eucharist. For this reason 
the early Christians called it Desiderata — the 
things desired ; and when they baptized the 



By the VirUie of Charity. 435 

catechumens who received directly after their 
baptism, they were accustomed to sing Psal'm 
XLI. : ' As the heart pa-nteth after the foun- 
tains of water, so my soul panteth after thee,. 
O my God.' As the hart runneth from the 
pack, and parched with thirst seeks the foun- 
tains of water, so my soul, O my God, desires 
thee, longs for thee, and sighs after thee." 

The saints, for instance Catherine of Sienna 
and Catherine of Genoa, languished and pined 
with the desire of Communion ; St. Catherine 
of Genoa, as soon as she saw the host in the 
hands of the priest, cried out with admirable 
fervor : " Make haste, make haste ; send it 
to the depths of my heart, for it is my 
strength." Cardinal James de Vitry says 
of Blessed St. Mary d'Ognie : " It was her 
life to receive the body of Jesus Christ, and 
to be deprived of it for any length of time was 
her death ; for she experienced in herself the 
truth of these words of our Lord : ' Except 
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
his blood, you shall not have life in you.' " 
(Jno. vi. 54.) 

Therefore, we ought to ardently desire to 
communicate ; but remark, concerning this 
desire, two important things : 

The first is, that however great is our Lord's 
37 



434 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

desire of coming to us, it is always regulated 
and governed by obedience, for he is present 
in the host only at the word of the priest. • In 
the same way, however strong your affection 
and desire for Holy Communion is, it should 
always be subject to your spiritual superiors 
to grant or refuse it, according as they judge 
to be most useful to your soul. 

Frequently the refusal well accepted and 
borne, will be more glorious to God, and 
more meritorious to you than the permission, 
because your desire will be annihilated, and 
your self-will destroyed by your submission to 
God. St. Luke relates that the disciples of 
Emmaus knew our Lord only in the breaking 
of bread : " Their eyes were opened and they 
knew him " in the breaking of bread. (Luke 
xxiv. 31.) Upon which St. Bernard wisely 
remarks : " If you would know our Lord, you 
must break yourself as he is broken, you must 
break your will, renounce your desires, and 
annihilate your sentiments ; after that you 
shall know and enjoy our Lord." (Horn, de 
discip. eunt. in Emmaus.) 

The second thing is that this desire ought 
to strongly animate us to prepare in an ex- 
cellent manner to receive the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, and to make our thanksgiving afterward 



By the Virtue of Charity. 435 

with great perfection ; more especially because 
the better we do these things, the more our 
Lord will be disposed to unite himself inti- 
mately with us and enrich us, which is all he 
desires. For we may well believe that he has 
not so wonderful and burning a desire to come 
to us only to do nothing for us, or to do us 
harm, which however will be the case if we 
do not receive him as we should ; rather his 
purpose in coming is to communicate to us 
abundantly the fruits of his life and death, and 
to bestow upon us his treasures, and he exe- 
cutes this purpose always according as our 
Communions are good. 

Our desire then should lead us to prepare 
most carefully for Communion, and to ap- 
proach with most firm and simple faith, with 
singular humility and profound reverence, with 
a lively sorrow for our sins, with a strong con- 
fidence in our Lord, whose burning desire to 
come to us and to do us good is a powerful 
motive of this confidence ; with an ardent love 
deriving it from his love for us and kindling 
our fire from his, and with all the other dispo- 
sitions we have indicated in their order. 

As our Lord works prodigies in himself and 
in nature in order to come to unite himself 
with us, overturning the obstacles that oppose 



456 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

his coming and his union, so we likewise 
should do great things, destroying our vicious 
nature and surmounting all difficulties in order 
to be fit to go to unite ourselves to him. 

It is also just as important to employ the 
time after Communion in conversing with our 
Lord, in thanking him for his visit, and espe- 
cially for the extreme love he manifests 
toward you, for the ardent desire he had to 
come to you, to unite himself with you, and 
to do you good, begging and conjuring him 
by the excess of that love and the ardor of 
that desire to truly unite himself to you and 
you to him, to purify you, sanctify you, illu- 
mine you, warm you, strengthen you, animate 
you with his spirit, and apply to you the 
fruits of his passion and death. 

Say to him : Effect in me, my dear Saviour, 
that for which thou hast come. Wouldst thou 
have come so far, and in such haste, to do 
nothing, and to return just as thou earnest ? 
Hast thou produced such wonderful and pro- 
digious changes in thyself and in all nature, 
to change nothing in me and to leave me as 
thou findest me ? I know not how to persuade 
myself that thou hadst so great a desire to 
come and unite thyself to me, and to give me 
thy divinity, thy humanity, the fruits of thy 



f Charity. 43 _ 

rs, the treasures of thy b^lood, and some 
share in :ues, if in reality thou dost not 

them to me, but si : me to ever re- 

main in my imperfections anc 

thus fervently approach H$ly Com- 
munion and receive our Lord, as much for his 
interest as for ours. For his interest let us 
him pleasure and to afford him 
a gratification he desires so much ; for on the 
one hand it is clear that the more one de 
a thing the greater is the joy the possession 
: affords ; and on the other, that our Lord 
edible affection to come to us, 
to unite himself to us, to apply to us the 
: his blood and enable us to- enjoy the 
fruit of his labors, and consequently that we 
cannot do anything more agreeable to 
than to assist him to come to us and enrich 
us, and thus satisfy his desire and accomplish 
For our interest, let us receive on 
account of the inestimable blessings we will 
derive from our Communion. 

From ail this it must be inferred that for 
most just reasons a faithful soul should n 
be prevented or deterred from communicating ; 
because otherwi- ingular displeasure will 

be given our Lord by depriving him of some- 
thing he desires soardentlv, and a great wrongs 



43 S Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

will be done the soul by keeping from it so 
great a blessing. 

You will tell me : A soul should be very 
pure to communicate. I reply : It is true ; 
but if we regard the infinite purity of the God 
who is received, our purity, though we should 
take a hundred years and an eternity to purify 
ourselves, and even the purity of the Seraphim 
and Cherubim, will never be sufficiently great, 
because, according to the maxim of philoso- 
phy, there can be no proportion nor measure 
between that which has limits and that which 
has none. But we should learn to what one 
is absolutely obliged in order to communicate 
worthily. It is to be pure from all mortal sin, 
and not from venial sin ; otherwise, who could 
communicate, since those that are most just, 
as the wise man says, fall seven times ? (Prov. 
xxiv. 16.) And an apostle, St. John the be- 
loved disciple, renders this testimony with 
respect to himself, and to all men : "If we 
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves 
and the truth is not in us." (i. Jno. i. 8.) 

Most certainly we should endeavor to bring 
the most exact purity possible to the recep- 
tion of this adorable mystery, and should pre- 
pare ourselves for it, as we have already said, 
with very great diligence, in order to receive 



By the Virtue of Charity. 439 

fully its fruits according to our Lord's desire 
and plan ; but we must not require of our- 
selves or of others, angelical purity, nor im- 
possible dispositions. 

Two reasons drawn from the Blessed Sacra- 
ment itself, show this to us plainly: the first, 
the one St. Theresa used to excuse the faults 
that the misery, frailty, and ignorance of men 
commit toward our Lord in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, is that he is there hidden and unknown ; 
for although he is truly there in body and 
soul, we see nothing of him any more than if 
he were not there. On account, therefore, of 
his being there thus disguised and invisible ; 
of his being really there and yet apparently 
not there, the faults committed against him 
in that state are less than if he were visible 
in his majesty and glory. 

The second reason is derived from the ex- 
treme desire our Lord has of coming to us, 
which does not at all harmonize with a pre- 
paration so pure and perfect, and consequently 
so difficult ; because when we greatly desire a 
thing we render the acquisition of it as easy 
as possible ; for example, if you anxiously 
desire a friend to visit you and that his coming 
should afford you singular joy, you do not tell 
him that you do not want him to come ex- 



44-0 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

cepting when it rains in torrents, or when it 
freezes hard, or at a very inconvenient time, 
or when you know he cannot come, for this 
would be to declare plainly, in the opinion of 
everybody, that you do not care much about 
his coming at all, since you appoint his visit so 
he cannot make it, or' only with so much 
trouble as to render it very difficult and 
almost impossible. 

Therefore our Lord, not considering what 
is due to himself, but what it is in our power 
to offer him, and his own desire to see us, does 
not require of us as a condition of visiting or 
receiving the Blessed Sacrament a disposition 
so extremely difficult, but such a one as may 
be easy to all according to their capacities. 

This is clearly shown in the parable the 
Church uses as the Gospel of the Mass of the 
Sunday in the octave of Corpus Christi. In 
this parable our Lord relates that those who 
were invited to the feast, a figure of the Eu- 
charist, having excused themselves most un- 
civilly and rudely, the master commanded his 
steward to go quickly through the streets and 
lanes of the city, and to bring in the poor and 
the feeble and the blind and the lame ; and it 
was done. And because there was yet room 
the master again commanded the steward to 



By the Virtue of Charity. 441 

go out of the city and search the highways 
and hedges and invite the poor that he would 
find lying by the roadside, and urge them to 
come, and even compel them ; seeming by 
this to wish to force them. (Luke xiv. 16.) 

What can be clearer and stronger than the 
words of this parable ? Go out quickly — cxi 
cito ; search everywhere, in the streets and 
public places, in the fields, even among the 
hedges — in plate as et vicos civitatis, in vias et 
sepes. And for whom ? For the poor, the 
infirm, the weak, the blind, the lame — pau- 
per es, ae debiies, et cezeos, et claudos ; bring 
them, push them, compel them to come — in- 
iroditc hue, compelle intrare. 

In conclusion, I wish to place before the 
eyes of all my readers an excellent picture of 
many of the things we have said above, par- 
ticularly of the desire of Communion, the pre- 
paration for it, the benefit of receiving it, and 
the thanksgiving after receiving ; this picture 
is found in the history of Tobias. (Tob. iv.) 
It is related that Tobias the father having 
sent his son to the city of Rages in the coun- 
try of the Medes, to obtain from a man named 
Gabelus a sum of money he had lent him sev- 
eral years before, the young Tobias had no 
sooner started than Anna his mother besran 



44 2 Union with Onr Lor^d until Advent \ 

to weep and to say to her husband: "Thou 
hast taken the staff of our old age and sent 
him away from us. I wish the money for 
which thou hast sent him had never been. 
For our poverty was sufficient for us, that we 
might account it as riches that we saw our 
son." (Tob. v. 23, 24, 25.) And when the sen 
did not return on the day appointed, but was 
absent much longer than the period assigned 
for his journey, the mother redoubled her 
lamentations and tears, and her husband even 
shared her apprehensions, and, as the history 
relates, "they began both to weep together." 
(Tob. x. 3.) But the mother whose tenderness 
was greatest, could no longer endure the ab- 
sence of this dear son, and overcome by her 
grief, cried out: "Wo, wo is me, my son! 
why did we send thee to go to a strange 
country, the light of our eyes, the staff of our 
old age, the comfort of our life, the hope of 
our posterity I We having all things together 
in thee alone, ought not to have let thee go 
from us." (lb. x. 4, 5.) 

Her husband endeavored to console her and 
dry her tears, "but she could by no means be 
consoled." (lb. x. 7.) She would receive no 
consolation and was desolate in her sorrow. 
What grief, what regret for the absence of 



By the Virtue of CJiarity. 443 

this dear son ! How violent a desire for his 
return ! 

Have we not certainly as much, and vastly 
more reason to mourn the absence of our 
Lord, and to desire his return in the Blessed 
Sacrament ? Every word that this mother, 
transported by her affection, says of her son, 
may with much greater appropriateness be 
applied to our Lord. This is the first object 
in our picture. 

The second is Anna's violent desire of her 
son's return, a desire which prompted her to 
leave her house every day to look all about to 
see if he were not coming, and to go out of 
the city into all the roads by which he might 
return to behold him afar off if she could. 
"Running out every day, she looked round 
about, and went into all the w T ays by which 
there seemed any hope her son might return, 
that she might if possible see him coming afar 
off." (lb. x. 7.) More than this, she ascended 
to the summit of a neighboring mountain 
whence she could discern at a great distance 
travelers that approached, and here she sat 
alone and motionless for whole hours and 
days, with her eyes fixed in the direction from 
which she believed Tobias would come. "Anna 
sat beside the way daily, on the top of a hill, 



444 Union ivith Onr Lord until Advent, 

from whence she might see afar off." (Tob. 

xi. 50 

Consider this second object in the picture. 
The desire that inflames the soul for the re- 
turn of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, 
and for the possession of him, should incite it 
to discover all the ways, and employ all the 
means of preparing well to receive him, should 
prompt it to retire from creatures and enter 
into itself for recollection, and should move it 
to ascend the mountains, that is to make ex- 
cellent 'and exalted acts of faith, adoration, 
humility, contrition, hope, love, and the other 
virtues of which we have treated. 

While this affectionate mother was on the 
mountain watching for the arrival of her son, 
"she saw him afar off, and presently per- 
ceived it was her son coming ; and returning 
she told her husband." (Tob. xi. 6.) She saw 
him afar off, and as the eyes of love are very 
quick, she recognized him immediately and 
hastened to tell her husband. When at last 
this beloved son so bitterly wept, so earnestly 
desired, and so long awaited, arrived and en- 
tered the house, who could describe the joy 
and delight of the father'and mother ? " The 
father receiving him, kissed him, as did also 
his wife, and they began to weep for joy." 



By the Virtue of Charity. 445 

(lb. xi. 11.) They both wept, not now for 
sadness, but for joy. 

This third part of our picture reveals to us 
the divine and exceeding satisfaction that well 
prepared souls receive from the coming of our 
Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, a satisfaction 
which, as St. Bernard says, far surpasses all 
the pleasures derived from creatures, and 
which is only marred by its short duration. 

The joy of Tobias and Anna was greatly 
increased when they saw their son returning 
with more goods than they had hoped for. 
But what proportion did these goods bear to 
the treasures of immense value, which our 
Lord brings to rejoice the soul that receives 
them ? 

Finally, as a model of thanksgiving after 
Communion, the angel Raphael, who, by a 
special favor of God, had visibly accompanied, 
protected, and instructed the young Tobias 
during his entire journey, said to him : " As 
soon as thou shalt come into thy house, forth- 
with adore the Lord thy God, and giving 
thanks to him, go to thy father and kiss him." 
(Tob. xi. 7.) We should do the same after 
having received our Lord. 

The angel continuing to instruct Tobias, 
told him to put the gall of the fish he had 
38 



446 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

directed him to keep, upon the eyes of his 
blind father, assuring him that their sight 
would be restored ; which truly happened 
after he had annointed them for about half 
an hour. u He stayed about half an hour." 
(Tob. xi. 14.) 

What is signified by this fish's gall that must 
be applied to blind eyes ? Assuredly the merits 
of the bitter passion and painful death of our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, who is that mysterious 
fish so beautiful spoken of by the sibyls, and 
which we must by prayer and by all other 
means after Communion, apply to our under- 
standing to enlighten it, and to our diseased 
faculties to heal them. 

The half-hour of application of the remedy 
indicates the time we should continue our 
thanksgiving ; during this time we should do 
all we can to thank our Saviour, and should 
employ every invention to testify our grati- 
tude. For if, as the Scripture relates, the 
two Tobiases desired to give as a recompense 
to the charitable traveling companion, whom 
they as yet knew not, the half of all the goods 
the young Tobias had brought back, and if, 
after having learned from himself that he was 
not a man, but one of the highest archangels, 
they were so astonished and surprised that 



By the Virtue of Charity. 447 

trembling they fell to the ground on their 
faces ; and if, even when reassured by the an- 
gel, they remained prostrate for three hours, 
blessing God and thanking him for such a 
favor (Tob. xii. 15 and 22) ; what should not 
our sentiments be, what posture should we 
not assume to thank our Lord for the benefit 
so greatly exceeding, for the favor so infinitely 
surpassing the one he conferred upon Tobias, 
with which he honors us in each Communion? 

III.— THE PRACTICE. 

It should be similiar to that of the preced- 
ing virtues, Faith and Hope : 

Yes, O my Lord and my God, I desire and 
and I wish most ardently to love thee with 
all my heart and all my strength, because thou 
art worthy of being infinitely loved on account 
of thy infinite perfections, and on account of 
the innumerable benefits thou hast bestowed 
upon me, thou dost daily bestow upon me, and 
thou dost design to bestow upon me ; and es- 
pecially on account of what thou dost do for 
my salvation, and of what thou dost give me 
in the Holy Eucharist. 

I desire and resolve to love thee more than 
all else that is lovable in the whole universe. 

I declare that I will live and die in this love 



44 3 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

which I owe thee, and which I am resolved to 
give to thee. 

And this even were none else to love thee. 

And notwithstanding whatsoever may be- 
fall me in consequence of it. 



The love of our neighbor should follow and 
flow from the love of God as from its true 
source. 

Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament teaches 
it to us in the most excellent manner, and 
obliges us to it most effectively, because by 
testifying so much love toward our neighbor 
and doing for him such wonderful things, he 
undoubtedly renders him most worthy of be- 
ing loved ; and because he has instituted this 
sacrament under the species of bread and wine, 
symbols of fraternal charity and union, inas- 
much as the bread is made of several grains 
of wheat, and the wine of several fruits of the 
vine united together. We ought thus to be 
united in charity. St. Paul says : "We being 
many, are one bread, one body, all that par- 
take of one bread." (i Cor. x. 17.) Partici- 
pating in one same bread which is the Blessed 
Sacrament, we ought all to form one bread 
and one body although we are many. 

As when two things are united to a third, 



By the Virtue of Charity. 449 

they are also united between themselves, ac- 
cording to the maxim of philosophers, the 
faithful being all united in heart and spirit to 
our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, must of 
necessity be united among themselves. 

Moreover, as all the consecrated hosts that 
are in France, Italy, Spain, and elsewhere, are 
very different in figure, taste, and the other 
exterior accidents, but all nevertheless are one 
same living and vivifying Bread, because the 
same Jesus Christ is in all ; so while all the 
faithful that communicate worthily may differ 
in nation, condition, complexion, and other 
natural qualities, they all agree in Jesus 
Christ, whom they receive, and by whom 
they are animated. 

And neither more nor less than all the hosts 
lose by the consecration their own substance 
to receive one common to all, that is our 
Lord ; so those w r ho communicate as they 
should, humble their own spirit, their own 
will, and their individual sentiments, which 
are the ordinary sources of discussions and 
quarrels, to follow the will and judgment of 
others, and adopt sentiments common and 
uniform in the spirit of Jesus Christ. 

This is something that cannot be done with- 
out difficulty, because in order to do it, it is 



450 Union zvitJi Our Lord ?cntil Advent, 

necessary to break and bruise ourselves ; we 
are just like the grains of wheat and the grapes, 
which cannot be united to form one same bread 
and one same wine without being previously 
broken and crushed. And as, if there is rup- 
ture and division of this bread and wine after 
the consecration, it is only in the species, and 
not in Jesus Christ, who always remains invi- 
olable and indivisible in his integrity ; so, if 
sometimes there is some difference and dis- 
union among the faithful, it must not affect 
charity nor penetrate to the heart, but be 
only in exterior matters that constrain them. 
In order to practice worthily and constantly 
charity toward our neighbor, it is absolutely 
necessary to establish well in our memories 
the presence of God, to know how to make a 
good use of everything, and to acquire a great 
depth of humility, patience, and annihilation 
of our own caprices. 

IV.— MEDITATIONS. 

As before, Father Saint-Jure recommends 
that these be taken from the work, " The Il- 
luminative Life of Jesus in the Desert." 

V.— READINGS. 
See Chapter III. 



By the Virtue of Charity. 451 

VI.— ASPIRATORY VERSES. 

Charity toward God. 

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 

thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and 

with thy whole mind. This is the greatest 

and the first commandment." (Matt. xxii. 37, 

38) 

" With desire I have desired to eat this pasch 
with you." (Ex. Luke xxii. 15.) I desire with 
incredible ardor to eat this passover with you. 

"Who will give us of his flesh that we may 
be filled ?" (Job. xxxi. 31.) Ah ! who will 
give me of that virginal and divine flesh, the 
flesh of my Saviour, that I may be fed ? 

" O Desire of the everlasting hills ! " (Gen. 
xlix. 26.) O Desire of the eternal hills, Desire 
of noble and sublime souls, and object of all 
aspirations ! 

" Thou art the only desirable, the only de- 
sired." (Cant. v. 16 juxto text, hebr.) Thou 
art the only desirable, and the one to whom 
all our affections should tend as to their 
centre. 

"My soul hath desired thee in the night; 
yea, and with my spirit within me in the 
morning early I will watch to thee." (Is. 
xxvi. 9.) My soul hath earnestly desired thee 



45 2 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

during the night ; and in the pain of thy ab- 
sence, my spirit, from a holy impatience for 
thy return, is agitated and moved within me ; 
my eyes shall always be open and my heart 
turned toward thee, until thou dost return. 

Charity toward our Neighbor. 

"A new commandment I give unto you: 
That you love one another as I have loved 
you." (Jno. xiii. 34.) 

M This is my commandment : That you love 
one another as I have loved you." (Jno. xv. 
12.) I give you a new commandment which 
is mine that I prefer to all the others : It is 
that you should love one another as I have 
loved you. 

" By this shall all men know that you are 
my disciples, if you have love one for another." 
(Jno. xiii. 35.) By this mark they will know- 
that you are my disciples. 

" I pray that they all may be one, as thou, 
Father, in me, and I in thee ; that they also 
may be one in us. That they may be one, as 
we also are one. I in them, and thou in me, 
that they may be made perfect in one." (Jno. 
xvii. 21, 22, 23.) I pray thee, Father, that all 
those who believe in me may be united to us, 
and among themselves, as we are united ; that 



By the Virtue of Charity. 453 

I may be in them by grace and love ; by na- 
tural and adoptive fraternity founded upon my 
incarnation ; by imitation and resemblance as 
a master in his disciples ; by the mystical 
union of the head with its members, which is 
that of my Church with me ; and by a real and 
intimate penetration as their food and their 
life in the Sacrament of my Body and Blood. 
As thou art in me by nature and by grace, 
may they also contract with us and among 
themselves, the holiest, the most divine, and 
the most perfect union possible on earth. 

" My little children, let us not love in word, 
nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth." (1. 
Jno. iii. 18.) My children, let us not love God 
nor our neighbor, with only words and tongue, 
but let us love them effectually and truly. 

VII.— CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion of all that relates to the three 
Theological Virtues, I desire to add a point of 
great consequence concerning their practice 
in order to still further encourage to it those 
who shall read this book. 

I suppose, in the first place, that a thing is 
never perfect nor complete until it has reached 
its first principle ; for, as it is from it that it 
derives its being, it is also in it that it must 



454 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

find the perfection of it ; from which follows 
that, according as it approaches its first prin- 
ciple it becomes perfect, and according- as it 
departs from it, it becomes imperfect and 
vicious. Thus we see that heat is always 
diminished in proportion as it leaves the fire 
and is increased according as it approaches it, 
and in the fire it is perfected and consummated. 
The same holds true of light with regard to 
the sun ; and of man in respect to God, since 
his union with God constitutes his excellency 
and all his happiness, and on the contrary his 
separation from God is the source of his faults 
and his ruin. This is conformable to these 
words of the Prophet-king: "Behold, they 
that go far from thee shall perish ; it is good 
for me to adhere to my God." (Ps. Ixxii. 27, 

28.) 

In the second place, I suppose that, accord- 
ing to this truth, as God is our first principle 
who has produced us, and as our understand- 
ing is a participation in his understanding, our 
memory in his memory, and our will in his 
will, in order to procure for these faculties of 
our soul the glory and perfection of which 
they are capable, we must of necessity unite 
them to God, we must unite our understand- 



By the Virtue of Charity. 455 

ing to his understanding", our memory to his 
memory, and our will to his will. 

This being granted, I say that this union 
is effected by the three Theological Virtues ; 
that our understanding is united to God's un- 
derstanding by faith, our memory to his mem- 
ory by hope, and our will to his will by 
charity. 

But I say further that, in order to bring 
about this union, these faculties of our soul 
must be prepared for it by the annihilation of 
their natural modes of action, so that God 
finding them void of their own acts, and con- 
sequently fit for him and his operations, may 
unite himself to them and render them perfect 
and divine. 

Now, the natural modes of action of these 
three faculties are as follows : The under- 
standing has naturally a great inclination for 
knowledge which causes it to constantly seek 
for something that it does not know ; and 
Having found this, it regards it, considers and 
studies it, reasons upon it, draws conclusions 
and passes judgment, and makes experiments 
of it; it desires to know things from the ex- 
perience of the senses, is not willing to trust 
to others, but would know for itself and by its 
own light. 



456 Union with Our Lord until Advent, 

The memory preserves images of all the 
things upon which we rely, which are our- 
selves and creatures. For we naturally cher- 
ish, if we do not watch ourselves very closely, 
a certain secret confidence in ourselves, in our 
mind, our knowledge, our industry, our riches, 
and the other advantages we may possess. 
We also trust much in our relatives, our 
friends, in remedies for our diseases, and in 
other creatures for all our wants. 

Our will is naturally inclined to love itself 
and us exceedingly, and to love nothing else 
save for love of us. 

All these modes of action are to these facul- 
ties hindrances to their union w T ith God, and 
consequently must be utterly destroyed. This 
is done perfectly by the three Theological 
Virtues. Faith chases from the understanding 
all natural methods of knowledge, and ban- 
ishes from it even all the other means of 
learning ; it extinguishes all its lights, and 
produces in it a night of profound darkness 
and a great void, which puts it in a state cap- 
able of fully receiving God and fundamental 
truth. God communicating himself to the 
understanding thus denuded of its own know- 
ledge, and uniting himself to it by faith, ele- 
vates and ennobles it in an admirable manner, 



By the Virtue of Charity. 457 

and renders it perfect and divine in the highest 
degree possible on earth. To speak truly, the 
real effect of faith is to elevate the mind to 
First Truth to receive its instructions, and to 
believe is nothing else than to unite our under- 
standing to God's by means of submission, ac- 
quiescence, and respect. 

Hope divests the soul of all reliance upon 
itself and upon creatures, and produces in the 
memory a forgetfulness of all created supports, 
and by this means renders it capable of being 
united to the omnipotence of God, and of re- 
ceiving his assistance and strength. 

Finally, charity deprives the will of all its 
natural fashions of willing and loving, and 
disposes it to union with God, who by this 
union enables it to will as he wills, and im- 
parts to it a portion of the love with which he 
ioves himself and ail things. 

When, therefore, you would practice faith, 
you must raise your understanding above itself 
and all its own modes of action, and must 
renounce your knowledge, your experience, 
and all other methods of learning, and in this 
elevation and blindness must produce, first, in 
general, the five acts of which we have spo- 
ken in the chapter on Faith, and then refer 
them to some particular truths, such as the 



458 Union until Our Lord until Advent. 

existence of God and your own nothingness, 
his presence everywhere, his providence, or 
others that you w T ill find in the same place. 

You must employ the same method to 
practice hope and charity, rendering your 
memory and your will, by separating them 
from the obstacles and disinclinations they 
have to union with God, fit for this union, and 
consequently for their perfection, as we have 
just explained ; and you must then make acts 
of these two virtues according to the models 
we have given in the chapters which treat of 
them. 



The End. 



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